Northern Rail

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Northern Rail
Northern were having a few problems thia afternoon between Blackpool and Liverpool. I was coming back from Blackpool, arrived at Blackpool North at 1605 expecting to catch the 1637 back to St Helens to find the service had been cancelled. So caught the 1620 Manchester Vic service to Preston, the the 1658 Virgin London Euston service to Wigan, at Wigan, the 1738 Liverpool stopper came in to Platform 6 (156+142), at around 1735 the driver announced on the PA that we were waiting for a conductor who was stuck in Preston but would be on the next train down (apparently there were problems in that area due to a broken down train), then at around 1740, the driver announced that when the conductor arrived, the service would run non-stop to Liverpool and anyone for any intermediate stattions would have to wait for the 1808 service - this meant that stations between Wigan and Prescot had no service for a full hour between 1708 and 1808 - not good at all on what was quite a busy day in the Wigan area with Wigan Athletics playing at home.