Recent content by C J Snarzell

This seems rather a bold move to invest in a new service area considering Lymm truck stock is only one junction further up the M56 and there is Knutsford services on the M6 which would effectively cater for any Northbound traffic heading towards Manchester from the Midlands and anywhere south...

Wigan Central Station station stood at the side of Station Road at the junction with Watkin Street opposite the site of the Wigan Casino. The station was closed in 1964, but wasn’t demolished until the early 1970s. The site of the main station building became a multi-story car park that over...

The barriers at Wigan NW have now been in place for several weeks but have not yet been activated. The side ‘tradesman’ entrance has also had a new door put in place to stop people entering or leaving the station via this route. Although the barriers are still not in use, Northern’s revenue...

Same could be said for the Pound Bakery. They should maybe have completely ditched the name and reverted their outlets back to Hampsons or Sayers. CJ

Three places that spring to mind in my neck of the woods - Culcheth, Golborne & Standish. Standish would definitely benefit from a local station on the WCML given the volume of houses being thrown up. As a village it has literally trebled in size in the last 20 years. The same could be said...

Wigan is just as bad as Bolton. The site of the Galleries shopping centre that was pulled down a few years ago has now been left as a massive patch of waste ground. I honestly think Wigan Council have deliberately isolated the indoor market building to force out the remaining traders. You...

I have had two experiences of being ghosted by Cross Country in the last few years. I applied for a customer service role in 2021 and was invited to take part in an online teams interview with two of their managers. The interview went well and they did say they would expect to get back to me...

The WHSmiths in Manchester Piccadilly is never over flowing with customers either. They get lots of people through out the day, but there is only one staffed till and the member of staff is often away from the till doing other things. I have noticed that their snacks and refreshments are...

I come from a strong policing background and I have to say that in recent years, more serving cops are being sacked than ever before. The standards of professionalism have always been considerably high in policing, but following multiple police scandals in the 2000s & 2010, misconduct...

WHSmiths have been a high street casualty for a while now, so this news isn’t a great surprise. I’m wondering how far the WHS streamlining will go? Manchester Piccadilly has two WHS outlets - a small stall like shop near the undercroft on the landing between the escalators & a larger store...

Aside from the ticket barriers there is also a lot of ongoing work taking place at Wigan NW at present. The main building on platform 4 has been completely knocked through - the cafe and the customer information office have completely gone and some shiny new glass doors have been installed that...

A lot of the issue with sourcing buses is finding reputable companies who are registered and can provide compliant coaches that meet PSVAR regulations as set by the DfT. Unfortunately, a lot of coach companies prioritise other work (such school contracts) over rail replacement work, which isn’t...

I’m sure Chiltern’s rail replacement was provided by Arriva Road Transport Services (ARTS), who covered the other Arriva TOCs such as Cross Country & Grand Central. ARTS are/were also responsible for Northern’s RR even when Arriva were stripped of the Northern franchise in March 2020. Again...

I had an interview with a TOC back in 2021 and to this day I have never heard a dickie bird back from them!!!! CJ

I can’t speak for LNER but Avanti West Coast use a video interview system called Launchpad that sounds very similar to what you have described. It seems to be an external IT programme purchased by Avanti that has an American woman doing the introduction and taking you through the process. You...