Investment in the wrong lines
 

With it being half term this week and train usuage increasing as a consequence it has yet again shown that many routes either get trains are too small or infrequent, while others get either too many trains or trains that are a lot larger than necessary.

A good example was when I was at Stockport station earlier this week for half an hour late morning and then for 30 minutes at about 4pm and noted approx. how full some of the "off-peak" trains looked compared to their seating capacity.

Morning trains
Chester to Manchester (2 car 150) 95% full
Buxton to Blackpool (2 car 150) 150% full
Norwich to Liverpool (3 car 158) 90% full
London to Manchester (Pendulino) 85% full
Crewe to Manchester (3 car 323) 25% full
Reading to Manchester (Voyager) 85% full
Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport (3 car 185) 90% full

Afternoon trains
Manchester to Alderley Edge (3 car 323) 10% full
Manchester to Crewe (3 car 323) 20% full
Manchester to Hazel Grove (3 car 323) 25% full
Norwich to Liverpool (3 car 158) 85% full
Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes (3 car 185) 100% full
Manchester to London (Pendunlino) 75% full
Manchester to Chester (2 car 142) 110% full

It should be noted that Alderley Edge, Crewe and Hazel Grove all get 2 trains per hour from Stockport (Alderley Edge and Crewe even more trains from Manchester), while Buxton, Chester and Cleethorpes all get 1 per hour.

Interesting observations.
It would appear that Virgin, Central and TransPennine are generally getting it right but Northern Trains are failing miserably by either providing too little capacity or far too much.
The other TOC's seem to have trains that are better suited to the services they provide.
I assume that the class 323 operated local services on the Crewe-Manchester line are lightly loaded because the affluent residents of Wilmslow and Alderley Edge prefer to travel into the city in their posh motors.:D

I agree that in general the 323s that run run local services from Manchester Piccadilly travel around far too empty, but then if the central carriage was detached from them they wouldn't be of much use else where. I also don't understand why Alderley Edge gets so many local trains serving it.

I think for train routes to get investment then TOCs need to ensure that everyone travels with a valid ticket, to ensure that the actual number of passengers using a particular service is not a lot lower than what's recorded.

Transpennine Express boast on page 3 of all their current timetables that passenger numbers have increased by 5 million a year since they took over the franchisee from Arriva and as a consequence want their 185s to have additional carriages. While Arriva were discouraging some people from using the train with their staff always striking and trains always running late or being cancelled, the following are likely to have caused a big 'increase' in passengers:
* Introduction of ticketing byelaws meaning people who board at staffed stations are unable to purchase discounted tickets on board.
* More stations having staff checking passengers tickets including Warrington Central, Manchester Airport and Stockport.
* Installation of new ticket machines at stations allowing passengers to purchase tickets to ANY station rather than just a selection of stations. (Especially useful for TP Express as a lot of their services run throughout the night when tickets offices are likely to be closed)

I don't understand why Styal station on the Manchester to Crewe via the airport line gets practically no service when there are so few passengers on the trains as it stands. You can even buy an add-on to a rail ticket to Manchester Airport to get to Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, which means you make onward travel to Styal on the Wilmslow to Manchester Airport bus!

The Mid-Cheshire Rail Users Group (for the Manchester to Chester via Altrincham line) compiled some figures as a response to the draft Rail Utisilation Strategy last year. Some of them were very high but Northern Rail's response was apparently that other lines are worse! (Maybe that included the Buxton to Blackpool service) I've stated some of the higher numbers that were recorded below.

Day of week Service Type of train No of passengers between Ashley and Hale

Monday 06:53 Chester to Manchester 2 Car 142 168
Tuesday 15:00 Chester to Manchester 2 Car 142 156
Monday 07:39 Manchester to Chester 2 Car 150 180
Friday 10:04 Chester to Manchester 2 Car 150 151
Saturday 10:00 Chester to Manchester 4 Car 142 60 standing*
Saturday 10:24 Manchester to Chester 2 Car 142 28 standing
Saturday 11:00 Chester to Manchester 2 Car 142 50 standing

* That figure was recorded when the 9:55 Chester to Manchester via Warrington service was replaced by two buses. However, normally that service would have been run by a 2 car 150.

A 2 Car 142 has a maximum of 120 seats (102 minimum). The report didn't mention how many seats 150s have. However, there would be two different figures.