The Anonymous Widower

FirstGroup’s Lumo Seeks To Launch Rochdale – London Open Access Service

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.

These two paragraphs outline the service.

FirstGroup has applied to operate Rochdale – London open access passenger trains, more than 20 years after a short-lived through service ran between the two destinations.

On May 17 FirstGroup said that it had applied to the Office of Rail & Road to launch six Lumo-branded return journeys per day linking London Euston and Rochdale via the West Coast Main Line. The trains would call at Warrington Bank Quay, Newton-le-Willows, Eccles and Manchester Victoria.

These are my thoughts.

The Route Isn’t Fully-Electrified

The route is electrified between London Euston and Manchester Victoria stations, but the 10.4 miles between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale is not electrified.

In Extra Luggage Racks For Lumo, I also talk about the possibility of fitting traction batteries to Lumo’s Class 803 trains, so they could handle the 88.5 mile diversion on the East Coast Main Line via Lincoln.

Trains with a traction battery, with an 88.5 mile range, would be able to travel between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale and return.

How Long Would London Euston And Rochdale Take?

Consider.

• The fastest London Euston and Warrington Bank Quay services take 1 hour and 44 minutes
• The fastest Warrington Bank Quay and London Euston services take 1 hour and 47 minutes
• Northern’s Class 195 trains take between 44-51 minutes Rochdale and Warrington Bank Quay with three stops.
• Northern’s Class 195 trains take between 29-32 minutes Manchester Victoria and Warrington Bank Quay with two stops.
• I will add two minutes for the extra stop.

These are my estimates for overall journey times.

• London Euston and Manchester Victoria – 2 hours and 15 minutes
• London Euston and Rochdale – 2 hours and 29 minutes
• Manchester Victoria and London Euston – 2 hours and 21 minutes
• Rochdale and London Euston – 2 hours and 40 minutes

The fastest direct Avanti West Coast services between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly take 2 hours and 6 minutes.

Could The Service Be Extended To Leeds?

For my timings between Rochdale and Warrington Bank Quay, I used Northern’s Leeds and Chester service.

This service goes between Manchester Victoria and Leeds calling at Rochdale, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Bradford Interchange, New Pudsey and Bramley.

I estimate it would take about 3 hours 32 minutes.

When Bradford has a new through station, I wouldn’t be surprised if a train operator looked at this route between London Euston and Leeds.

As Leeds and Manchester Victoria is only 49.8 miles, Lumo’s battery electric trains, with 88.5 mile batteries sized for the Lincoln diversion on the East Coast Main Line, would have no difficulty serving Leeds, where they would charge before return.

Could Lumo Run Pairs Of Five-Car Trains Between London Euston and Manchester Victoria?

As I said in Ten-Car Hull Trains, Lumo’s sister company; Hull Trains, runs the occasional ten-car service.

Perhaps for a big football match or other event, Lumo might like to run ten-car trains between Manchester Victoria and London Euston.

I suspect they could do it if the platforms were long enough, but they wouldn’t be able to run a 260 metre ten-car train to Rochdale, as that station only has a 135 metre long platform.

Warrington Bank Quay Station Will Get Six Extra Non-Stop Trains To And From London

This would provide real competition to Avanti West Coast over this route.

Newton-le-Willows Station Is Only A Few Miles From The Town Of St. Helen’s

Newton-le-Willows station has 400 parking spaces and 32 disabled parking spaces.

Note.

1. The parking is all free!
2. There are regular local trains to Chester, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Airport and Wigan North Western.

A six trains-per-day service to and from London, will help fill up the parking spaces.

Eccles Station Is Within Walking Distance Of Eccles Interchange

This OpenRailwayMap shows Eccles station and Eccles Interchange.

Note.

1. The mauve tracks are the Manchester Metrolink.
2. They terminate in the South-West at Eccles Interchange.
3. The red tracks are the Liverpool-Manchester lines.
4. Eccles station is a Northerly walk from Eccles Interchange.

This connection must be useful to more than a few.

I suspect if you’re going between London and Media City UK, Salford Quays or Piccadilly Gardens, you may be better to change to the Metrolink at Eccles.

Will Lumo’s Rochdale Service Run As A Flight With Avanti’s Glasgow Service?

Flighting is where two or more trains going on the same route run a few minutes apart.

• Every hour, on the half hour, an Avanti West Coast service for leaves London Euston for Glasgow Central.
• As with Lumo’s Rochdale service, the first stop is Warrington Bank Quay station.
• The Lumo service would leave London Euston a few minutes after Avanti’s Glasgow service.
• The distance between the two trains would be such, that if the first train stopped, the second train could stop safely.
• Digital signalling as is being installed on UK rail lines would make it easier to ensure safe separation.

But the benefit would be that both trains ran fast to Warrington Bank Quay station.

A Day-Trip To Manchester

If I’m right about the 2 hours and 15-21 minutes between London Euston and Manchester Victoria, then a day-trip would certainly be feasible.

Last Trains

This is a table of the last train times for Lumo between Newcastle and London.

• Weekdays – 20:27 21:35
• Saturdays – 18:27 19:22
• Sundays – 19:24 20:21

Note.

1. The first time is the last Northbound departure.
2. The second time is the last Southbound departure.
3. Are these late enough for football matches?

I shall be interested to see the proposed last train times for the Manchester route.

• Will they be timed so you can get a tram from the Etihad or Old Trafford stadium after an evening match, that allowed you to get the last train back to London from Manchester Victoria?
• Taylor Swift gave the Manchester Arena a lot of favours with her concerts. Would you have been able to see her concert and get the last train back to London?

A few extra full trains wouldn’t hurt Lumo’s finances.

Conclusion

It looks like, this could be a very worthwhile service.

 

May 17, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Avanti West Coast, Digital Signalling, Eccles Station, Euston Station, FirstGroup, Hull Trains, Leeds Station, Lumo, Lumo Euston And Rochdale, Manchester Metrolink, Manchester Victoria Station, Newton-le-Willows Station, Open Access Operators, Rochdale, Warrington Bank Quay Station