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Cross Country On Diversion

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VideozVideoz

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No trains are running between Macclesfield and Stoke On Trent today. Few observations / queries from me.

1) XC services have been stopping at Wilmslow. I’ve not come across this before. Had this happened in the past?

2) The XC trains pass through Crewe without stopping. To my knowledge, all long distance trains stop at Crewe if they are using this route. Am I right? (Excluding Caledonian sleeper btw!)

3) The current regular timetable has no direct services between BHM and WML so has this anomaly occurred before?
 
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The Planner

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VideozVideoz said:
No trains are running between Macclesfield and Stoke On Trent today. Few observations / queries from me.

1) XC services have been stopping at Wilmslow. I’ve not come across this before. Had this happened in the past?

2) The XC trains pass through Crewe without stopping. To my knowledge, all long distance trains stop at Crewe if they are using this route. Am I right? (Excluding Caledonian sleeper btw!)

3) The current regular timetable has no direct services between BHM and WML so has this anomaly occurred before?
Click to expand...
XC tend to stop at Wilmslow whenever Macc is blocked, allows a bus transfer.
 
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swt_passenger

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JonathanH said:
The 1727 Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth passes through Crewe non stop every weekday.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P89158/2022-08-31/detailed
Click to expand...
I see it’s one of 3 XC trains through Wilmslow, that run Mon- Fri throughout the current working timetable period.
It has all the features of a standard route retention move that’s been going on for years, and Wilmslow will presumably get passenger calls when the whole service runs that way, perhaps because it’s a convenient bus transfer?
 
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jfollows

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VideozVideoz said:
No trains are running between Macclesfield and Stoke On Trent today. Few observations / queries from me.

1) XC services have been stopping at Wilmslow. I’ve not come across this before. Had this happened in the past?

2) The XC trains pass through Crewe without stopping. To my knowledge, all long distance trains stop at Crewe if they are using this route. Am I right? (Excluding Caledonian sleeper btw!)

3) The current regular timetable has no direct services between BHM and WML so has this anomaly occurred before?
Click to expand...
  1. XC trains stopped on weekdays at Wilmslow prior to Covid-19. Their calls were withdrawn during the pandemic and not reinstated since. There is a down morning and up afternoon service via Wilmslow (but no longer stopping) to allow an extra Manchester-Stoke stopping service (by freeing up a path in each direction on that route) on top of the regular hourly stopping service.
  2. Trains not stopping at Crewe has been normal for years; the Glasgow-Euston regular services don't call, the Liverpool-Euston services didn't call until the timetable was changed a few years ago to add the stop, and Manchester-Euston services often didn't call until the VHF timetable which generally standardised the calling patterns to include a Crewe call. To be honest, more calls means more connection opportunities nowadays, but Crewe no longer has enough platforms since it was rebuilt so gets congested, especially when trains run late, and trains get delayed further waiting for platforms.
  3. WML means Wilmslow presumably and BHM means Birmingham New Street presumably. Again, pre-Covid there were a few through services, but they never ran at times I wanted. Connecting via Crewe has always been a good alternative, and the route via Stockport and Stoke is also valid, so there are plenty of trains, just not direct ones as you state.
  4. Wilmslow is used for bus connections on days like today and yesterday when the line via Macclesfield is closed.
EDIT I note that the December 2022 timetable adds more connections at Stafford for Birmingham-Wilmslow journeys; the hourly Manchester-Euston via Crewe adds a Stafford call and the Euston-Blackpool/Glasgow/Edinburgh via Birmingham also adds a Stafford call. Splitting tickets at Stafford for a Wilmslow-Birmingham trip often generates considerable savings, but in the past actually changing at Stafford didn't make any sense whereas from December 2022 there will be additional options which do.
 
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VideozVideoz

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jfollows said:
  1. XC trains stopped on weekdays at Wilmslow prior to Covid-19. Their calls were withdrawn during the pandemic and not reinstated since.
Click to expand...
really? I have somehow missed that! I travelled that route a lot pre-pandemic and don’t recall a Wilmslow stop being timetabled! Most of my trains either terminated at BIRMINGHAM (northbound) or were routed via STOKE.
 
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jfollows

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VideozVideoz said:
really? I have somehow missed that! I travelled that route a lot pre-pandemic and don’t recall a Wilmslow stop being timetabled! Most of my trains either terminated at BIRMINGHAM (northbound) or were routed via STOKE.
Click to expand...
Oh, I can see how that reads - I should amplify that there were regular XC calls at Wilmslow pre-Covid but just not many of them, two up services and - latterly - one down I think. There was a very early 06:xx to Bristol, a late 17:xx to Bournemouth and an early 08:xx to Manchester, the latter two being diverted to allow an extra stopping service to run between Stoke and Manchester. These both still run, but no longer stop at Wilmslow. The Bristol service disappeared.
 
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VideozVideoz

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jfollows said:
EDIT I note that the December 2022 timetable adds more connections at Stafford for Birmingham-Wilmslow journeys; the hourly Manchester-Euston via Crewe adds a Stafford call and the Euston-Blackpool/Glasgow/Edinburgh via Birmingham also adds a Stafford call. Splitting tickets at Stafford for a Wilmslow-Birmingham trip often generates considerable savings, but in the past actually changing at Stafford didn't make any sense whereas from December 2022 there will be additional options which do.
Click to expand...
I have noticed that Stafford is a good ticket splitting station. There are also some decent fares from Stafford, especially when heading southbound

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

jfollows said:
WML means Wilmslow presumably and BHM means Birmingham New Street presumably. Again, pre-Covid there were a few through services, but they never ran at times I wanted. Connecting via Crewe has always been a good alternative, and the route via Stockport and Stoke is also valid, so there are plenty of trains, just not direct ones as you state.
Click to expand...
Yes, these are the station shortcodes. I don’t think there is much call for journeys between these 2 stations otherwise there’s be direct services
 
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