London Euston to Manchester (1H04 service)

[Mcr Warrior]

Anyone know why the 1900 Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly seems to be booked to take 38/39 minutes from Stockport to Manchester on Fridays? (But just 11/12 minutes on other weekdays?)

 

[yorkie]

It's possible that the 1900 is particularly busy on Fridays and they want to encourage people to get the 1920 so they artificially bloat the timings so it looks like the 1920 overtakes, so people booking London-Manchester end up booking the 1920?

 

[Mintona]

What Yorkie says is probably right. I don't know, but is there any chance it goes via Birmingham and Wolverhampton?

 

[yorkie]

Stockport to Wolverhampton to Manchester would take a lot longer than 39 minutes though

 

[bengolding]

The first off peak train on all Virgin services out of Euston after the pm restriction is always packed, whether it be to the West Midlands, Liverpool or Manchester. On a Friday, they are virtually guaranteed to be full and standing (in Standard), and the TM usually has common sense to declassify coach G.

 

[yorkie]

If it's the first off peak train they are worried about (1840), why worry about the 1900?

 

[Mintona]

If it's the first off peak train they are worried about (1840), why worry about the 1900?

Coz it's Friday, so probably the first 2 are full and standing.

 

[Mojo]

It's been timed to take 33 mins between Ardwick Junction and Manchester Piccadilly whereas normally 390s are timed 6 or 7 minutes.

As a result, the train arrived 30 minutes early today!

 

[yorkie]

it is clearly a ploy by Virgin to stop people using the 1900. But surely the 1840 must be wedged as this is the first off peak train and there is a theoretical gap of 40 mins between the arrival of that and the next one (the 1920 - theoretically) at Manchester so anyone who looks at the timetable is going to pile on the 1840 surely?

 

[ffcphone]

Prior to VHF I occasionally caught the 2000 MAN-EUS VT service which was always scheduled to arrive EUS around 2240, noticeably longer than other services around it even pre-VHF days. It always arrived in EUS early when I travelled on it.