Scnario
 

Right I work in Warrington about 15min walk from Bank Quay Station but 40/45mins away from Warrington Central on foot in the morings I gert a lift from Central to Work if Im in at 08.30.

When Im finished at arround 2pm its about 5/10mins before I get out of the yard I walk to Bank Quay Station and usually get there just in time for the ATW Service to Change at Chester fro a Train to Liverpool Central which is about a 10minute walk home but a good 25minute walk from Lime Street.

Now one and only one guard on ATW says its not a valid route but yet theres no back tracking and yet its the best route for my Journey home as there isnt a TPE or EMT one from Central that Stops at Hunts Cross untill late evening and that I don't feel safe on Northern Rail Trains.

Plus if I went to Lime St and traveled accross to Central Via the Loop that makes my Journey longer than changing at Chester and as they say when claming compo it your journey that counts.

Sounds like your in a bit of a pickle ;) . A situation where it is actually quicker to go via a much longer route. I think the route is slightly odd since you are travelling a good few miles South to Chester (30 minutes) then back up to Liverpool so surely this must be at least an hour and possibly twenty minutes. Shame though since I can see where your coming from, if you did a quick route via Warrington Central, you have the mega 40 minute walk, so it's kind of a lose-lose situation.

Just out of interest, if you finish at 2pm, or slightly later, if your quick you could make the 14:22 Northern from BQ to Liverpool Lime Street but have to accept the 25 minute walk, so overall your journey from work to home would be around 1 hour 30 mins.

DAVID,Even if I did make that one Id rather use the service to Chester and catch the Merseyrail service (5minute Conection time at CTR) I don't quite feel safe on Northern Rail trains at all as jsut too many bad experences plus ATW are much cleaner than Northern same goes for Merseyrail plus theres the reliabilty with ATW and MRE.

Saturday Iwas on Stand by duty an decided to take the bike to Halfords to get a tyre plus to a bike shop just by Bank Quay Station neither of them existed anymore in Warrington.

So affter getting soaked wet through I went in and was told I could get off so got an earlier train to take the bike to the shop in shotton to get me gears and tyre done and decided to get the train back to change at Bidston.

The gaurd on the trainwas very rude and agresive to wards me wouldnt hear me out and was demanding extra money anwas threatening to tell the station staff at Bidston so when I got of at Bisdsotn to be on the safe side I got a SGL to L_pool Its the only time I have any problem with ATW.

Hello John142, are you aware that there exists something called the routeing guide which gives all the valid routes for each journey. Ask your friendly local booking office clerk to take a look and see if the route you prefer is valid for your ticket. Having tried it on the National Rail website I strongly suspect that it's not.

Regards, 62440.

I don't understand this bit. You are implying that Lime St to Central is a 15 minute walk. I could hop backwards from one to the other in less time than that !! :D:rolleyes: Proper walking - 5 mins max;)

Also Bank Quay to Central in Warrington only takes me 15 mins, but you are implying 25-30 . Do you walk very slowly, or something ?

It's only about one minute on the train - I did it in August, left Lime Street with about 4 minutes to make a connection from Central to Kirkby - no problem!

Yes I have a walking Disability plus it can take me upto 20mins to get out of lime st mainline stn as offten you are queing up to get out of the barriers for abt 10mins becuse peole can't be bpthered buying tickets before they travle and mysteriousley 99 out of 100 people without tickets get on at Edge Hill.

John,
If you want to look for yourself the National Routeing Guide can be found here: http://www.atoc.org/rsp/Routeing_Guide/
I think you will find that tickets between Liverpool and Warrington or Hunts Cross and Warrington are only valid on the direct routes.
I agree that "Northern" appear to have more than their fair share of tatty trains but unless you want to increase your journey costs considerably then I can't really see any alternative to using their services.

Since you say you work in Warrington, I assume you do this journey daily - so have some sort of season ticket ?

Have you investigated have ticket for a different journey ?

e.g. Runcorn East - Liverpool
Warrington - Birkenhead ?

I tend to only do the Jouney abt 3 times a week sometimes on a Sunday but opn a Sunday this is the quickest route but yet the system tells you to change at Earlestown and HAve an Hours wait as I typed in leaving Warrington Bank Quay at 15.00hrs and it told me to get the train to Earlestwon and hwas abt an hours wait but I wasn't getting into Lime St / CTL untill affter 7pm.

I was looking for a Journey to Crewe just for refrence leaving Warrington Bank Quay at 12pm and told me to walk to Warrington Ctl to catch the train to L-Pool Sth Parkway and change there for the train to crewe when the coach was leaving at 12.40pm which just shows you can't rely on Jouney planners etc.