Are the Euston - Blackpool (via Birmingham) services useless?

[Some guy]

I hadn't noticed that, from the December 2019 timetable:
9M53 10:00 Glasgow-Euston was Penrith then Preston
9M55 12:00 Glasgow-Euston was Carlisle then Lancaster
9M84 14:00 Glasgow-Euston was Oxenholme then Preston
9M59 16:00 Glasgow-Euston was Oxenholme then Preston

Yeah they seemed to be an express service towards Preston and then became a stopper for the rest. I remember the 10:00 being a single voyager which is quite crazy for almost a 6 hour journey

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yeah they seemed to be an express service towards Preston and then became a stopper for the rest. I remember the 10:00 being a single voyager which is quite crazy for almost a 6 hour journey

Takt-tastic, aka "way to confuse people". I assume the reason for this silliness (rather than them having the same calls every hour, or at least on a clean two-hourly pattern*) is freight paths?

* If designing a two-hourly pattern, you'd look to alternate calls at Oxenholme to connect with the shuttle service to Windermere with through Windermere services, also two-hourly - but Windermere is now a right mess.

 

[Watershed]

Takt-tastic, aka "way to confuse people". I assume the reason for this silliness (rather than them having the same calls every hour, or at least on a clean two-hourly pattern*) is freight paths?

* If designing a two-hourly pattern, you'd look to alternate calls at Oxenholme to connect with the shuttle service to Windermere with through Windermere services, also two-hourly - but Windermere is now a right mess.

Yes, it'll be to make the paths fit in with everything else. Not ideal by any means, but the WCML can be a bit like herding cats at times.

 

[Agent_Squash]

There’s the Northern Barrow service which does connect quite nicely at Preston at least I believe.