Chorley's my local station so none too pleased about the cutbacks, though I can understand the reason for them, especially with the stock shortages. I had thought they would replace the diverted hourly fasts to Glasgow/Edinburgh with a Blackpool, Preston, Oxenholme or Barrow service. Obviously there aren't any extra carriages available.
Chorley did well on the old timetable. 2 fasts per hour to Manchester Picc, 1 semi-fast, and 1 all stations to Victoria. It's one of the fasts that we are losing.
Surely since the overall service quality is badly affected, our ticket prices should be reduced. Have TPE and Northern looked at that? Or are they hoping nobody will bring the subject up?
TPE could perhaps improve things in the meantime by stopping their Glasgow/Edinburgh - Manchester EMUs at Euxton Balshaw Lane, which is not two miles from Chorley town centre and has a good car park and bus links. It would be especially useful for the northbound services and for some Manchester commuters. Or are they just hanging us out to dry?
Are Bolton and Chorley going to get their Glasgow and Edinburgh services back in 2016 after electrification? Wigan already has good services up the WCML. Bolton (pop 300,000) and Chorley (100,000) have not.
Once the electrification work starts, and there is single line working through one of the Kearsley tunnels for months, I wouldn't like to be a daily commuter from Chorley or Bolton into Manchester. It will be chaos. I have an 1845 Bradshaw in which the Bolton-Manchester route was via Leigh and Kenyon Junction (on the Liverpool and Manchester railway, the first ever railway junction in the world (1832). But that is no longer in existence, nor is the route from Bolton via Radcliffe and Prestwich. So bustitutions in heavy M61/M60/A580 traffic where there are miles of tailbacks most mornings in the rush hour.
