West Midlands Trains "Destination Manchester" - will it happen?

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Some years ago, were there not proposals for a rail service from the Midlands area to Manchester Airport, via Wilmslow....or am I mistaken in that belief?

 

[jfollows]

Styal used to be omitted most of the day to make the timetable work; there wasn’t enough time to get to Crewe, reverse, and form the next down service. The occasional Styal calls required retiming of the next train. The 2018 timetable, I think, fixed this, allowing hourly calls.

But it’s not bad if it and Wilmslow both get two trains an hour from Manchester Airport. It used to have this frequency in the 1970s with two trains an hour from Altrincham to Alderley Edge. Having a service more frequent than hourly makes it useful to me; having the risk of waiting 59 minutes makes it unusable for me today, and if a train is cancelled that could be a two hour wait.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone other than me use the stop, mind you.

The other thing about a second airport service is that it gives me more options for Manchester, especially for Oxford Road and Deansgate. The current service isn’t good for this, but an airport terminator will give opportunties to change there into an onward service. I’m less bothered now, but after my stroke in 2013 I wanted to avoid Piccadilly platform 14.

 

[frodshamfella]

Two trains an hour between Manchester Airport and Crewe would be ideal to boost connectivity and reduce car use to the airport. Hopefully the service will operate later than the existing services as well as on Sundays which may assist in modal shift.

The recent time keeping and cancellation rate on LNWR Birmingham to Liverpool has been abysmal. I think they should concentrate getting that running properly before considering anything else.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Dec 2025 ==

Some years ago, were there not proposals for a rail service from the Midlands area to Manchester Airport, via Wilmslow....or am I mistaken in that belief?

There was one from Euston to Manchester Airport for a while, didn't last very long. I think it may have stopped in the Midlands .

 

[Baxenden Bank]

What is Northern's view of the suggested 'takeover' of one of their services?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There was one from Euston to Manchester Airport for a while, didn't last very long. I think it may have stopped in the Midlands .

Best part of a quarter of a century ago, now. Called intermediately at Watford Junction, Tamworth LL, Sandbach and Alderley Edge.

 

[jfollows]

Best part of a quarter of a century ago, now. Called intermediately at Watford Junction, Tamworth LL, Sandbach and Alderley Edge.

Yes, it was before I moved to Wilmslow in 2008, fortunately. I used it once for the hell of it. The Tamworth stop was great for smokers because it was very long.

 

[Bevan Price]

What is Northern's view of the suggested 'takeover' of one of their services?

Northern will probably cease to exist in a few years, when GBR is finally established.

 

[AndrewE]

Northern will probably cease to exist in a few years, when GBR is finally established.

That's as maybe.... please can we have this extra service from the south to the airport asap regardless of who we pretend is running it?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

That's as maybe.... please can we have this extra service from the south to the airport asap regardless of who we pretend is running it?

Are there any proposed changes to Manchester Airport railway station that will increase capacity there?

 

[scrapy]

Northern will probably cease to exist in a few years, when GBR is finally established.

Wont LNWR cease to exist as well then?

I expect GBR will still be split into seperate companies as pay and terms will be different and also to eliminste the possibility of national rail strikes.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Northern will probably cease to exist in a few years, when GBR is finally established.

But the proposed service information appears to suggest a start in the December 2026 timetable, according to what some postings on this thread appear to intimate.

 

[lowe1409]

Are there any proposed changes to Manchester Airport railway station that will increase capacity there?

Supposedly platform extensions coming at some point. Though I'll admit that won't do much for capacity. There should be capacity for one additional service however.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Dec 2025 ==

But the proposed service information appears to suggest a start in the December 2026 timetable, according to what some postings on this thread appear to intimate.

It's on LNR's website as well

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Have there been any recent occurrences of one TOC deciding to take over a service pattern of another TOC without the matter being discussed at a high level of national transport organisations?

 

[Geeves]

What is Northern's view of the suggested 'takeover' of one of their services?

Isn't the difference now that competition has ceased to exist?

 

[The Planner]

Are there any proposed changes to Manchester Airport railway station that will increase capacity there?

Yes. Platform extensions in 2028.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yes. Platform extensions in 2028.

Thanks for the date confirmation. That is later than can be useful to a service said to commence in December 2026.

 

[lowe1409]

Thanks for the date confirmation. That is later than can be useful to a service said to commence in December 2026

There is still capacity though at present. There's only 2 departures between xx:32 and xx:01 and no more than 2 platforms occupied at any point. Surely there's plenty of capacity there to squeeze an additional service in.

 

[Transilien]

Have you ever seen the vast acarage of car parks that surround Manchester Airport and its connection to the M56 motorway? Do you honestly expect that people will change their travel habits to any great extent?

Dosen't that mean that there is a market for a service to the Airport?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dosen't that mean that there is a market for a service to the Airport?

The airport is already well served by trains coming from the Manchester direction and many is the time that I have seen two train units occupying the same platform.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Worth pointing out the LNW Manchester page says this:

I don't see how that can be interpreted as anything other than taking over Crewe to Manchester Airport from Northern, and hence the Styal calls.

Which would mean that Styal, rather than having 2 tph to Manchester as was optimistically suggested previous in this thread, will have 0 trains per day to Manchester. I'm sure that will go down well.

I can't see how this LNWR service would benefit anybody. It does a slow route in the W Midlands, then via Stoke and The Planner has said it would have an extended stop at Crewe. It would be quicker, and only marginally less convenient, to get the Avanti or LNWR service to Crewe and change for the airport as now but maybe that isn't progressive, ambitious or innovative enough for LNWR.

 

[Transilien]

The airport is already well served by trains coming from the Manchester direction and many is the time that I have seen two train units occupying the same platform.

So now it’s too popular, instead of not popular enough

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

So now it’s too popular, instead of not popular enough

I note yours in a humorous posting, but with regards to services at Manchester Airport, some such as the one that ran to Southport using Class 142 Pacers were seen as not the type of service needed at the airport and a number of services that once terminated there such as the Cleethorpes service now seem to run to Liverpool Lime Street. I suppose it is a moot point worth considering if such decisions were made to facilitate long-distance only services to Manchester Airport.

 

[fandroid]

Have you ever seen the vast acarage of car parks that surround Manchester Airport and its connection to the M56 motorway? Do you honestly expect that people will change their travel habits to any great extent?

The vast car parks are a bit of an illusion. You need that space to cope with cars that are staying there for one or two weeks at a time. So, 7 to 14 times bigger than a normal daily use car park with the same number of customers.

 

[The Planner]

Which would mean that Styal, rather than having 2 tph to Manchester as was optimistically suggested previous in this thread, will have 0 trains per day to Manchester. I'm sure that will go down well.

I can't see how this LNWR service would benefit anybody. It does a slow route in the W Midlands, then via Stoke and The Planner has said it would have an extended stop at Crewe. It would be quicker, and only marginally less convenient, to get the Avanti or LNWR service to Crewe and change for the airport as now but maybe that isn't progressive, ambitious or innovative enough for LNWR.

That was just a guess at what you could do without flexing anything, WMT may have other ideas.

 

[weeklycommuter]

I have seen more than one proposal on the London Northwestern Railway website at different times about extending their train services to Manchester. I have not so far seen, either on the Office of Rail and Road website or the Network Rail website, any application from West Midlands Trains to extend any of their train services to Manchester.

In their latest proposals on the following webpage, West Midlands Trains state they will submit their detailed proposals to the Office for Rail and Road for consideration in the second half of 2025. We are approaching the end of the second half of 2025 but there is still no application from West Midlands Trains on either the ORR website or the Network Rail website to extend any of their train services to Manchester.

West Midlands Trains will switch to public ownership on 1 February 2026. Does the DFTO support this aspiration to extend West Midlands Trains train services to Manchester?

Or will this Destination Manchester webpage on the London Northwestern Railway website disappear on 1 February 2026?

Destination Manchester

Read our exciting proposal for our trains to begin serving Manchester for the first time.

www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

We will submit our detailed proposals to the Office for Rail and Road for consideration in the second half of 2025.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Which would mean that Styal, rather than having 2 tph to Manchester as was optimistically suggested previous in this thread, will have 0 trains per day to Manchester. I'm sure that will go down well.

I wonder how many people from the South Manchester area travel by rail to Styal station in order to visit the National Trust property of Quarry Bank Mill. It is a nice short walk from the railway station to the rear estate entrance and offers the chance to see the housing that the Greg family built for their workforce and the very small chapel.

Perhaps Mayor Andy Burnham may have some views on the matter of this proposed rail service.

 

[AndrewE]

I have seen more than one proposal on the London Northwestern Railway website at different times about extending their train services to Manchester. I have not so far seen, either on the Office of Rail and Road website or the Network Rail website, any application from London Northwestern Railway to extend any of their train services to Manchester.

In their latest proposals on the following webpage, London Northwestern Railway state they will submit their detailed proposals to the Office for Rail and Road for consideration in the second half of 2025. We are approaching the end of the second half of 2025 but there is still no application from London Northwestern Railway on either the ORR website or the Network Rail website to extend any of their train services to Manchester.

West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway will switch to public ownership on 1 February 2026. Does the DFTO support this aspiration to extend London Northwestern Railway train services to Manchester? Or will this Destination Manchester webpage on the London Northwestern Railway website disappear on 1 February 2026?

I imagine that if they don't do something very soon they will take the page down on New Year's eve, as otherwise

We will submit our detailed proposals to the Office for Rail and Road for consideration in the second half of 2025.

just makes it clear that they can't even stick to a timetable of their own making!

 

[Richard S]

1 train an hour from the airport south is hopeless if you're arriving on a flight. In June we flew from Verona to Manchester intending to catch the train to Crewe then the Liverpool stopper to Hartford. Overall it took less time to fly than to complete a rail journey in Cheshire.

 

[jfollows]

1 train an hour from the airport south is hopeless if you're arriving on a flight. In June we flew from Verona to Manchester intending to catch the train to Crewe then the Liverpool stopper to Hartford. Overall it took less time to fly than to complete a rail journey in Cheshire.

I agree.
I always get a taxi home to Wilmslow for this reason.
Maybe £20 for two people, not worth hanging around at the station, which is a huge flog away anyway.
Half hourly would probably change my decision.
Anyone like you going further doesn’t have a sensibly cheap taxi option.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

At my old age of 80, I might not be fully comprehending matters, but why should a train service from the Midlands area and beyond to Manchester Airport railway station have any effect on a stopping Northern service from Manchester Piccailly to Manchester Airport railway station?