Liverpool Lime St - St Helens Jct - London Euston

[lfc2014uk]

According to Liverpool Councillor & MerseyTravel Chairman Liam Robinson at todays MerseyTravel Transport Customer Forums he said that MerseyTravel and Virgin Trains are in talks to run a new Liverpool - London Euston service via St Helens Junction, entering the WCML at Earlstown once the Liverpool - Manchester route is electrified in 2014/15

 

[dannyandy]

Not surprising to be honest although I do question how much quicker it would be to use the route

 

[YorkshireBear]

According to Liverpool Councillor & MerseyTravel Chairman Liam Robinson at todays MerseyTravel Transport Customer Forums he said that MerseyTravel and Virgin Trains are in talks to run a new Liverpool - London Euston service via St Helens Junction, entering the WCML at Earlstown once the Liverpool - Manchester route is electrified in 2014/15

What potential journey time improvements would this bring? More importantly... Stock?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

According to Liverpool Councillor & MerseyTravel Chairman Liam Robinson at todays MerseyTravel Transport Customer Forums he said that MerseyTravel and Virgin Trains are in talks to run a new Liverpool - London Euston service via St Helens Junction, entering the WCML at Earlstown once the Liverpool - Manchester route is electrified in 2014/15

Only the DfT can contract Virgin to do this, unless it is open access which seems unlikely.
St Helens Jn platforms can only cope with 5 Pendolino carriages (118/120m).
It's not obvious where the stock would come from, unless it is a diversion of an existing service via Runcorn.
It would be more believable if the quote was from Virgin or DfT.
I suppose they might run trains this way at weekends (the Runcorn route is due for resignalling) but stops en route are unlikely unless platforms are lengthened.

 

[The Planner]

£10 says it would be one early in the morning and one late at night, nowt more.

 

[Gareth]

Not surprising to be honest although I do question how much quicker it would be to use the route

I doubt it would be quicker but with a train every 30 minutes as opposed to an hour, door to door journey times would be quicker as a clock face average for Liverpool area passengers via Lime Street; especially those to the east of the metropolitan area who often use Warrington Bank Quay (therefore Glasgow-London trains). Of course, it would have a knock on effect of both that service and the Chester one, the latter of which may not be viable if more people travel to Lime Street and Runcorn instead and is probably the reason Liverpool only has an hourly service.

 

[pablo]

This is postulated in the HS2 proposals. One via Runcorn. T'other via Earlestown giving a half-hourly to Scouseland. IIRC.

 

[Gareth]

Phase 1, I think. Phase 2 suggest both via Runcorn.