Manchester Airport line stopping trains

[Philip]

Is there capacity at Wilmslow to allow some of the Northern services which run via Heald Green and stop at stations along that line to terminate at Wilmslow platforms 1 and 2 rather than continue to Manchester Airport?

It does feel like an unnecessary amount of Northern services go into the Airport and if some could avoid the Airport by going onto Styal and Wilmslow, it would make for a more reliable operation for TPE/TfW services, whilst possibly freeing up platform space to fit longer trains in.

Heald Green could be developed into a bigger interchange station with most/all trains serving it, to allow passengers from the Northern services to connect to TPE services, if they want to go to the Airport.

 

[jfollows]

There's one morning Liverpool-Wilmslow and return service which isn't currently in the timetable which does this instead of terminating at Manchester Airport. It then returns as a useful additional service into Manchester and beyond in the morning peak.
Wilmslow has a reversing siding which can also be used so there is some scope. But it's not ideal; there's an hourly freight service which generally runs, plus the Cardiff-Manchester services can sometimes be terminated in platform 2 if they're running late. So the spare capacity today is sometimes used when things go wrong.
I don't think Heald Green is an especially welcoming station for people changing trains, even for a same-platform change. My other half went to Wythenshawe Hospital as a precaution after slipping and falling on ice there once.
I don't personally object to the idea of more trains to Wilmslow of course; being only hourly along the Styal line isn't wonderful (and 50% of the service in 1970!).
The train which currently doesn't run can be found at http://timetablehistory.com/times.aspx?uid=W37133&date=20220519

 

[The Planner]

Is there capacity at Wilmslow to allow some of the Northern services which run via Heald Green and stop at stations along that line to terminate at Wilmslow platforms 1 and 2 rather than continue to Manchester Airport?

It does feel like an unnecessary amount of Northern services go into the Airport and if some could avoid the Airport by going onto Styal and Wilmslow, it would make for a more reliable operation for TPE/TfW services, whilst possibly freeing up platform space to fit longer trains in.

Heald Green could be developed into a bigger interchange station with most/all trains serving it, to allow passengers from the Northern services to connect to TPE services, if they want to go to the Airport.

You would have to think carefully about where it sits in the hour. Bearing in mind the Crewe Liverpool services which are xx.16 in the up and xx.41 in the down. You would need a 5 minute reversal, possibly a bit more depending on how far the train has come, so you would be blocking the up line for a good 8-9 minutes based on re-occupation of the line. It probably isn't beyond the wit of man to make it work but it doesn't look lime the current Windermere service would sit well with this.

 

[jfollows]

Most of the terminators (Liverpool-Wilmslow, weekday evenings and Sundays) are booked to use the reversing siding, so having a long time between arrival and departure isn't such a problem. On Sundays the booked shunts to/from the reversing siding are generally omitted, the service just reverses in the platform, but it can get out of the way if needed. Weekday evenings the reversing siding appears to be used more in practice.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 May 2022 ==

There's also some unused capacity with Chelford loops, which are rarely used. There used to be an up morning stopping service which used the up loop to allow a Manchester-London service to overtake, but this is long gone. Using the loops could free capacity at Wilmslow by allowing an up freight service to leave in front of a faster passenger service. But it's not ideal, and it's better to run the service without relying on the loops I think, which is generally the case today - now they tend to be used when, for example, a down stopper leaves Crewe and Sandbach in front of a late-running down fast service. The freight services in both directions tend to be given clear paths between Wilmslow and Sandbach.
As always, using up capacity is good in theory but exacerbates problems when things go wrong.