Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(03/07/2017 11:06)mikestone Wrote:  I'm not convinced that the minor accelerations to the semi-fasts will produce a better return than having a half-hourly, instead of hourly, service at the stations skipped.
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A rough calculation shows the Mid-Cheshire line has around 9300 services per annum, each calling at every station between Mouldsworth and Navigation Road. On average that means at Knutsford 55 passengers board or alight a train which stops there, while at Ashley it's 0.8 passengers. If a station can't get an average of 1 passenger boarding or alighting every service how can an increase in provision be justified and what benefits could it possibly deliver?

It appears the semi-fast will only have around a 15 minute turnaround time, so making the service call at more stations might have a negative effect on punctuality (as delays are less likely to be recovered.) W

More importantly, considering the distance between Northwich and Manchester and how long the train takes faster services are required, but a semi-fast using a 75mph DMU won't go far enough towards that.