The Manchester–Preston line runs from the city of Manchester to Preston, Lancashire, England. It is largely used by commuters entering Manchester from surrounding suburbs and cities, but is also one of the main railway lines in the North West and is utilised by TransPennine Express regional services and to Scotland. It was announced in December 2009 that the line would be electrified, following an announcement in July 2009 that the Chat Moss line between Manchester and Liverpool was to be electrified first. The electrification work for this line commenced in May 2015 and was due for completion in May 2018, but was delayed until December 2018. Route Map Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Oxford Road Deansgate Salford Crescent Clifton Kearsley Farnworth Moses Gate Bolton Lostock Horwich Parkway Blackrod Adlington Chorley Buckshaw Parkway Leyland Preston Electric service commenced on 11 February 2019. The line is one of the busiest in the North West, with eight trains per hour in each direction during the off-peak daytime timetable. The line speed is currently 100 mph. There is a large variety of rolling stock on this line, current rolling stock include Classes 150, 156, 158 and 195 DMUs, 331 and 397 EMUs and 769 and 802 BMUs. Former rolling stock on this line include Classes 142, 153, 175, 180 and 185 DMUs and 319 and 350 EMUs. (not all rolling stock mentioned will be in the route) History The line opened as far as Bolton in 1838 under the Manchester and Bolton Railway and was extended to Preston in 1841 by the Bolton and Preston Railway. These companies were later amalgamated through the East Lancashire Railway to form part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Route The route now has 2 starting points in Manchester: Manchester Piccadilly, which offers rail links to most large cities in the country. Trains using the route will call at the through platforms 13 and 14 on the west side of the station. It then follows the route of the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway as far as Deansgate, where it uses the Windsor link to reach Salford Crescent and joins the line from Manchester Victoria. Manchester Victoria was the original starting point before the Windsor Link was created. It goes through Salford Central, after which it then joins the line from the Windsor Link and enters Salford Crescent. The route then continues to Clifton, and then passes through Kearsley, Farnworth and Moses Gate following the Irwell Valley for much of the route. The first major town is Bolton. Just after Bolton station there is a junction to the right where the Ribble Valley line, a single track line, heads off to Blackburn and Clitheroe. The line cuts through the western suburbs of Bolton including Lostock, where trains to Wigan Wallgate via Westhoughton, branch off. Next is Horwich Parkway opened in 1999 and Blackrod (where the former Horwich Branch diverged). It then proceeds through the town of Adlington and on to Chorley, passing through Buckshaw Parkway, which opened in 2011 and finally joins the West Coast Main Line at Euxton Junction before continuing via Leyland to Preston. Freight and Diversions The line is an important diversionary route at weekends, used in conjunction with the Crewe–Manchester line to divert away from a large section of the West Coast Main Line if required. The convenience is that this only adds 35–40 minutes to a journey and negates the need for costly bus replacement services. Some freight still uses this line (such as stone trains from the Peak District to a distribution terminal at Hope St., Salford and "Bin-liner" refuse trains from Pendleton to Scunthorpe), especially during the peak periods during the day. It is, however, a primary passenger route in the North West of England. Rolling Stock Class 331 Class 397 Class 66 Thanks for reading this suggestion!
Very interesting suggestion! I would love to see this route in TSW, as well as the class 331 and the class 397.
Probably more in JT’s area of interest and it would be nice in the mid 80’s with a mixture of Pacers, Heritage DMU’s and Class 31/4’s hauling the Barrow trains.
Great suggestion. It would be an interesting timetable set in 2019 with the huge fleet of rolling stock available. Plus a modern day version of Preston I’d like to see, since we already have an 80’s version of that.
Very nice idea and it would be good to finally have a Civity as they have been out long enough though knowing dtg probably more chance of yet another rehashed shed
Well some of the assets are done for it (the end stations for example) It connects to other routes/networks. Decent layer possibilities. What sort of landmarks are there along the way, something to differentiate from the other commuter routes?
