• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Heaton Chapel on Sundays

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
6,072
Both stations get a really good service Monday to Saturday as long as most to all stuff runs. 2 an hour on Sundays was just about usable for most, even if the timings from Manchester were a bit odd (49 past then roughly on or just after the hour, meaning a 45-50min gap if you missed the one on or just after the hour)
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

ReturnToSPT

Member
Joined
1 Nov 2023
Messages
18
Location
Heaton Chapel
Is there? Sorry, thought it was 2. In which case HS2 2B isn't needed.
Crewe, Alderley Edge, Buxton, and Hazel Grove services all stop at Heaton chapel Mon-Sat each hour. Think there’s additional Hazel groves in peaks too? Such a good weekday service makes the Sundays even more infuriating!
 

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
6,072
Heaton Chapel has a good service in both directions tomorrow thanks to engineering work. Albeit only to and from Stockport. Why can't it be this way every Sunday?
 

nw1

Established Member
Joined
9 Aug 2013
Messages
9,430
The Sunday timetable needs a good re-write, just like they did with the Mon-Sat timetable which gives a pretty much clockface timetable all day.
On Sundays the Buxton's interwork with the Chester's, which gives some trains limited turnaround times at Piccadilly. Also the Crewe line uses only 2 units on a Sunday, so turnarounds are very tight (only 4 minutes at Piccadilly) so calls at Levenshulme and Heaton Chapel just aren't possible.
If they re-did the timetable and diagramming for the Buxton and Chester services, I reckon you can easily get the Buxton's to serve both stations every hour, in both directions.

Perhaps you'd want one, or all, of the EMU-operated services to call, as it makes sense (to me) to have an electric service at an electric station. Also the Buxtons are slightly longer distance than some of the others, so should perhaps run fast - so to me a mix of the Crewe and Macclesfield (and Hazel Grove terminators, if they are still a thing - my experience in this area was almost exclusively in the 90s) would make sense. No idea whether that would work in practice.

Got no idea why they don't implement a clockface timetable going into Manchester, especially given Sunday shopping has been a thing for a while now. It would surely be easier to plan, for one thing.

4 min turnaround does seem unnecessarily tight, I suppose that's another symptom of the current DfT "thou shalt not spend money" dictat. What the Crewe line needs, of course, is an extra unit. I've always thought of 5 mins as the minimum turn around, but more like 8-10 in a large station such as Piccadilly.
 

jfollows

Established Member
Joined
26 Feb 2011
Messages
10,121
Location
Wilmslow
4 min turnaround does seem unnecessarily tight, I suppose that's another symptom of the current DfT "thou shalt not spend money" dictat. What the Crewe line needs, of course, is an extra unit. I've always thought of 5 mins as the minimum turn around, but more like 8-10 in a large station such as Piccadilly.
Actually I find the south Manchester local services run well to time generally.
The timetable planning rules at https://sacuksprodnrdigital0001.blo...ational Rules/TPR 2024/V4/TPR 2024 V4 NWC.pdf state standard values for minimum EMU/DMU turnaround times as
4 (minutes) But no more than 3 successive 4 minutes turnrounds followed by an additional 10 minutes (10 minutes applies to diagrams and not stations)
so the diagram can't be 4 minutes for every turnaround.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
17,256
Timetable change visible on RTT now shows improved Sunday service (at least hourly) from June
That's a vast improvement on presently!
What's changed? Presume the big gaps in the timetable (travelling inbound to Manchester Piccadilly) have now been filled? Outbound (to Stockport) isn't/wasn't that bad, to be fair, other than nothing calling at around 1000.
 

Starmill

Veteran Member
Joined
18 May 2012
Messages
27,281
Location
Bolton
What's changed? Presume the big gaps in the timetable (travelling inbound to Manchester Piccadilly) have now been filled? Outbound (to Stockport) isn't/wasn't that bad, to be fair, other than nothing calling at around 1000.
Some of the Buxton services have been retimed to call. The service is still not as good as the December 2017 of course as there are a number of 70 minute gaps.
 

nw1

Established Member
Joined
9 Aug 2013
Messages
9,430

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
6,072
What's changed? Presume the big gaps in the timetable (travelling inbound to Manchester Piccadilly) have now been filled? Outbound (to Stockport) isn't/wasn't that bad, to be fair, other than nothing calling at around 1000.

The around 10am out of Manchester gap has been filled, and trains to Manchester are roughly hourly. Will make Sunday train travel semi-attractive once again.
 

jfollows

Established Member
Joined
26 Feb 2011
Messages
10,121
Location
Wilmslow
Ah ok, thanks. So "an additional 10 minutes", does this mean 10 minutes on top of 4, i.e. 14 minutes?
I’m only reading the same words you are - my reading is that a diagram can’t only have 4-minute turnround times, there need to be additional minutes added after multiple 4-minute turnround times in a single diagram.
 

northwichcat

Veteran Member
Joined
23 Jan 2009
Messages
32,692
Location
Northwich
Also the Buxtons are slightly longer distance than some of the others, so should perhaps run fast - so to me a mix of the Crewe and Macclesfield (and Hazel Grove terminators, if they are still a thing - my experience in this area was almost exclusively in the 90s) would make sense.

I think one reason the Buxton services do Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme is because most services are booked as 4 carriages, so there's more space for the additional passengers, than on some services. For example, I boarded the 08:02 Stockport to Manchester weekday service a few days ago (that had originated at Buxton) and arrived at Stockport with around 60% of its seats taken. There's other services leaving Stockport around that time where passengers are really crammed on.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Some of the Buxton services have been retimed to call. The service is still not as good as the December 2017 of course as there are a number of 70 minute gaps.

It looks like there's a few weeks of no Sunday services on the Mid-Cheshire line from 23 June. Presumably that'll mean no interworking between Buxton and Chester services, at least for those weeks.
 

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
6,072
It looks like there's a few weeks of no Sunday services on the Mid-Cheshire line from 23 June. Presumably that'll mean no interworking between Buxton and Chester services, at least for those weeks.

Which, if the Buxtons continue to call, will still mean a good service at HTC and LVM.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top