I am trying to think what the timetables were like in 2001 for Crewe to Derby, Monday to Saturdays all trains ran from Manchester Airport to Skegness/Lincoln Central or Cleethorpes and there was the odd system where all trains stopped at Wimslow except the slow Central Trains. On Sundays trains started at Crewe although some were extended to Liverpool Lime Street for a short while. The extensions were "better" although punctuality was appalling for that route and the line closed at 21:00 which was far too early.
I travelled on the Crewe-Derby line quite a bit in the early 2000s, and I seem to remember the times for that section were very similar to now - ie approx. x07 from Crewe[staring back from the Airport about x35], arriving Derby approx. x21, departing x25, forming the x55 from Nottingham to Skegness. On the return, they arrived into Nottingham from Skegness approx. x55, departing x58 to Derby, arriving there about x25 to form an x30 or so to Crewe.
That was the problem when the service was broken-up into Skegness-Nottingham; Nottingham-Derby and Derby-Crewe sections - the times of all sections remained roughly the same, but there was not sufficient time to connect at Nottingham and Derby, so through journeys from, say, Grantham to Crewe took up to 2 hours longer.
There was also a period with Central Trains when shortage of crews meant bustitution between Crewe and Nottingham for several Saturday evenings. Then, ironically, the journey was quicker using the A50 and A52, and stopping only at Stoke and Derby. In particular, the 1807 train was replaced with a bus at 1830 from the Horse Bay, calling at Stoke approx. 1905-1910, Derby about 2015, and arriving Nottingham at 2045, a few minutes ahead of when the train would have arrived!
