Have you ever noticed how DEPRESSING Manchester Piccadilly looks in TSW? Like actually, it’s only 323s and 158s. Let’s change that. This isn’t exactly highly requested, but this is more of a “make a station look busy” and a “link two major cities” route. This will be a modern day route. Here are the stops from Manchester to Liverpool Stations Manchester Airport Heald Green Gatley East Didsbury Burnage Mauldeth Road Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Oxford Road Manchester Deansgate Manchester Victoria (branched off) Manchester United Football Ground Halt* Trafford Park Humphrey Park Urmston Chassen Road Flixton Irlam Glazebrook Birchwood Padgate Warrington Central Warrington West Sankey for Penketh Widnes Hough Green Halewood Hunts Cross Liverpool South Parkway West Allerton Mossley Hill Edge Hill Liverpool Lime Street *Only served during matches Rolling Stock Class 195 DMU for Northern Class 158 DMU for East Midlands Trains (in game) Class 185 DMU for TransPennine Express Class 323 EMU for Northern (in game) (I couldn’t add the photo) Class 331 EMU for Northern Major Drivable Routes NT = Northern Trains TPE = TransPennine Express EMT = East Midlands Trains NT Manchester Airport - Liverpool NT Crewe - Manchester Piccadilly (starts/ends) at Manchester Airport NT Oxford Road - Liverpool NT Manchester Airport - Blackpool North (drivable to Deansgate or Oxford Road) TPE Cleethorpes - Liverpool (last train of the night terminates around at Manchester Airport) TPE Manchester Airport - Glasgow (drivable to Victoria) TPE Manchester Airport - Edinburgh (drivable to Victoria) EMT Liverpool - Norwich (drivable to Manchester Piccadilly) Scenarios 1. Football Rush As a football match just ended, there is a load of passengers waiting to go to the city and also fly home. Start your shift with a Class 331 at the football grounds and go to the airport, before returning back and going to Piccadilly. 2. Speedy Solution A strike happening on TransPennine Express means limited services will run today. Drive a 8 car (double) Class 331 taking rush hour passengers from the airport to Liverpool Lime Street, making limited stops. 3. Crewe Relief It’s the late night and a tired driver needs to be relieved. Starting at Manchester Airport, take the train coming in from Crewe and drive it up to Manchester Piccadilly, stopping at all stations along the way. Then, take it to Ardwick Depot. 4. Manchester Chaos Due to of problems happening at Manchester Piccadilly, some trains have to turn around early. Take a Class 323 from Liverpool to Oxford Road. From there, another driver will take over and drive to the airport. 5. Beach Day During the summer, drive a Class 195 from Manchester Airport to Blackpool, but only as far as Deansgate. 6. Liverpool Evening During the winter, drive a stopping service operated as a Class 195 from Liverpool straight down the line to Manchester Airport. Just be aware of heavy snow. 7. TransPennine Tricks Drive a 3 car Class 185 from Liverpool to Manchester in the morning. The train will continue to Cleethorpes from there. However, you will have a slow train ahead for the first half of the trip. 8. Trapped in Manchester Only staying in Manchester today, drive a Class 185 from Manchester Piccadilly to the Airport, taking over another driver from Cleethorpes. After this though, you have to take an unscheduled staff train to Manchester Victoria, only stopping at Manchester Piccadilly. 9. Cross Country Running from Liverpool during a rainy morning, drive a Class 158 as far as Manchester Piccadilly, where another driver will take over and drive the Norwich-bound train as far as Nottingham. 10. The Tourist Experience Visiting the city of Manchester during the spring, ride a Northern Class 195 from Manchester Airport to Piccadilly, and from there, wait for a TransPennine Express service to Manchester Victoria. And yes, this is passenger mode. Why this route? This will allow a new operator, new trains, an actually busy Manchester Piccadilly, and linking two of Englands largest cities by train.
Great suggestion though how long would it be mate. Also if i recall TPE is owned by first group and DTG can't use first group liveries so would it have to be done like IOW 2022.
TPE is government owned (same as LNER Scotrail, Southeastern all of which we have in game), so it is a possibility.
Manchester airport to liverpool can only be done as far as oxford road since it goes through the electrified chat moss route above this route. Not much point for the manchester airport to glasgow/edinburgh since that's done by a 397 and doesn't go through victoria. Would be a good route though
Ooh I'd quite like to see a class 195 or a class 331. I think this route would be perfect for it! Great suggestion!!
Just to expand on this, for anyone else's reference: The Government own Northern, LNER, Southeastern and TPE. They also own the brand of any "dead" franchise, excluding (I think) any TOC that had it's owner's name/logo in the brand, e.g. FGW. They also own the British Rail brand, apart from NSE. The Scottish Government own ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper The Welsh Government own Transport for Wales Transport for West Midlands own the WMR Brand, but don't operate the franchise. LNWR as a brand is not owned by them. Transport for London, of course, own the London Underground and Overground. So, in other words, a hell of a lot of UK stuff is Government owned, either by the UK, Scotland, Wales, or a regional transport body.
Bro that’s so stupid of me, I forgot the line wasn’t electrified. I’m gonna heavily edit this, one sec.
I think Manchester - Crewe would also be a good idea, route length seems reasonable, we could have the highly requested AWC class 390 as the new train and the 323 as the returning train.
