Abellio East Midlands Railway

[knutstransport]

RE: Abellio East Midlands Railway

(20/05/2020 19:30)mikestone Wrote:  The track access application issued recently had firm rights beteen Manchester and Norwich but only contingent rights between Liverpool and Manchester which made me wonder if there had been an unannounced decision for EMR to continue running to Piccadilly , perhaps with a seperate Liverpool-Manchester service to be extended to Sheffield when/if the Hope Valley upgrade happens.

Around 13 years ago there was a proposal for a Nottingham-Derby-Stoke-Crewe-Manchester Airport-Manchester service (replacing some existing services in the process.) I wonder if First Group are perhaps looking at resurrecting that proposal?

I seem to recall that idea was dropped when DfT proposed Northern could replace their 323s with a new fleet as well as getting additional EMUs - if that new train order had gone ahead the Manchester-Manchester Airport-Crewe stopper was set to be extended to Stoke instead.

So in the end neither proposal went ahead!