Here’s an old timetable, from 1991. It’s interesting to make a comparison with the proposed timetable to take effect from May 2018.
What’s clear is that any commuters from Marsden and (especially) Slaithwaite in the Manchester direction will suffer a reduced peak frequency compared to 1991, where what was previously a half hourly service becomes hourly.
So, 27 years of progress and alleged investment, and we end up with something worse than when we first started.
Since the train companies are so fond of using alleged service improvements as a justification for fare increases, next time we meet with TPE we’ll be asking them to reduce peak fares into Manchester to pre-1991 levels. It’s only fair that if improvement justifies an increase, deterioration justifies a decrease.
