Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
Some news on the May timetable changes. There's various articles on this but I don't think any one article gives the complete list

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv...e-14441335
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-...n-14441254
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/nor...-1-9075681

Changes postponed include the Chester extension of a Calder Valley service, while changes going ahead include Alderley Edge to Wigan (!), half-hourly services to Buxton plus a n hourly train to Hazel Grove only, part of the proposed Harrogate and Atherton line improvements and the Manchester Airport to Liverpool via Warrington service (replacing the current TPE service via Warrington.)

Ones of particular note are all Macclesfield and Mid-Cheshire line changes being postponed, including Sunday improvements. For those who don't realise the additional Macclesfield services would be electric so the shortage of diesel units isn't a good excuse, it seems the reason they've been postponed is because the original plan was to run the additional services through to Blackpool via Bolton (as electric services) but as that can't happened it seems Northern have postponed the change instead of running an EMU shuttle in the mean time. Also Sunday improvements on both Mid-Cheshire and Macclesfield don't require additional units - in fact most Mid-Cheshire services are 4 car on Sunday so if Northern can run a 2 hourly 4 car service why not an hourly 2 car service?

Regarding Mid-Cheshire services the off-peak extra services aren't the biggest issue. It's the counter-peak flow services at peak times. Currently the 15:59, 16:59 and 18:04 services from Chester to Manchester all get overcrowded by the time they've reached the Greater Manchester boundary.