Double double back

[Lewisham2221]

Just used the National Rail journey planner to look up a potential same day return trip from Longport (LPT) to Macclesfield (MAC).

I was aware that, in the past, travel was valid via Stoke-on-Trent (SOT) due to lower frequency local services and no direct service. However, given the improvement in local services, I was half expecting this allowance to have been removed in favour of a changing at Kidsgrove (KDG) - albeit possibly with a longish wait.

I was surprised to see that not only is travel via SOT still permitted, but that I was also offered an outward itinerary of LPT - KDG - SOT - MAC, which passes non-stop through LPT after boarding there.

The forum ticket site only appears to offer the journey with a single change at SOT and neither site seems to offer a single change at Kidsgrove (presumably because the double back easement still exists and provides a faster journey?). Just wondering why the National Rail site would offer a double, double back itinerary?

 

[sot]

Is it still only the LNR and the very early or late trains that call longport?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is it still only the LNR and the very early or late trains that call longport?

Looks like Longport station is served primarily by West Midlands (London Northwestern) trains operating between Crewe and Stafford (one train per hour, each way, during the week), augmented by a couple of morning Northern workings from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester Piccadilly (but nothing in the reverse direction!) as well as a handful of East Midlands Trains operating between Crewe + Derby/Nottingham/Newark.

 

[kieron]

I don't know what logic either web site uses, but one aspect is that they only know that a train is due to go through a station because they're given data which says it does, and the data doesn't include every station a train goes through.

Some stations are listed whenever a train goes through them, others (like Longport) are only listed if the train stops there. This means that neither web site sees a double back. If there's a difference between what they show as being permitted it will be for a different reason.

If you wanted to have an itinerary with just a change in Kidsgrove, you could ask for a journey which doesn't go through Stoke-on-Trent. This makes the journey slower, but not excessively so.