Originally Posted by fishquinn
Does anyone know which routes are currently working with 319s? I'm planning a trip to Liverpool fairly soon and want to avoid the DMU turns is possible.
Originally Posted by LNW-GW Joint
Lime St to Wigan (2), Preston, Warrington BQ, Manchester Airport, Manchester Victoria (nearly all of them) and Liverpool South Parkway (1tph).
That gives 7tph all told out of Lime St, 4 of which are stoppers, 3 semi-fast (Preston, Airport, S Parkway).
There's just the odd peak DMU working to position trains beyond the wires.
319s also work one of the Manchester Piccadilly-Airport stoppers.
Last I heard, all the Man Vic stoppers were supposed to be 319s.
All the Lime Street to Manchester Victoria stoppers are indeed operated by 319s. Two 319s stable at Victoria Reversing Siding overnight and all day Sunday.
Two journeys (NSu) operate with an out of service unit attached at the rear - 0620 Lime Street to Victoria and 2209 Victoria to Lime Street. The second unit (as a single unit) covers unbalanced service journeys in the AM/PM peak. I imagine that this would not happen if there were space to stable a third unit at Victoria Reversing Siding.
In respect of the Lime Street to Manchester Airport service, I believe only the following journeys are still scheduled for DMUs.
0338 NSu Lime Street to Airport and 0434 NSu return.
I'm told the above journeys remain diesel because of the regularity of their being diverted via the CLC route.
0844 Su Airport to Lime Street, 2215 Su & 2315 Su Lime Street to Airport.
These journeys still interwork with Lime Street to Warrington Central and/or Manchester Oxford Road journeys - with a rehash of duties they could go electric (using the 319s spare at Victoria).
There is actually a third 319 spare in the Manchester area on Sundays, this being the one which stables at Stockport Carriage Maintenance Depot and which, like the two at Victoria, is not scheduled for work on Sundays. On other days it operates the Piccadilly to Airport stopper.