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Old 17th December 2007, 13:55
dlh1983 dlh1983 is offline  
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Huddersfield
Posts: 41
Grand Central's sister company Grand Union have plans to use the line between Stockport and Stalybridge for a Bradford to London Euston service calling at Brighouse, Huddersfield, Guide Bridge and Stockport on the way. They claim it would be competitive (time wise) with National Express East Coast's occasional service between Bradford and Kings Cross and Virgin Train's service between Stockport and London Euston. I don't know what type of trains they plan to use but I'd imagine they must consider the line between Stalybridge and Stockport to be in good condition or that improvements can easily be made. Although, Grand Union were told that the service cannot start before 2011 due to competition protection rules.

Regarding your idea. Transpennine Express could send the Manchester to Hull service via Stockport, it would then mean 170s were used on the line in question rather than 185s. (Although, it may slow down the service a bit too much if it had to go to Stockport then to Stalybridge.) If that happened they could look at running a 185 every 15 minutes from Manchester Piccadilly to York which would be an improvement on the current timetable pattern where there are 3 trains per hour with a half hour gap between two of them. (With the Hull service being a fifth train every hour)
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