SUDDENLY Liverpool and Manchester have got even closer.
This will mean Liverpool to Manchester in half an hour will become the norm
Train company First TransPennine Express has launched its new timetable, and the train really is taking the strain out of commuting between the two big cities.
The new, non-stop express between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool will take just 32 minutes. The trains will begin their journeys in Newcastle. The first train will be at 7.35am and then more or less every hour. The last fast train to Liverpool is at 8.35pm – which seems ludicrously early. The last from Liverpool to Manchester is 7.12pm – even more ludicrously early.
Aside from the premature end to the daily run this is excellent news. It also shows how work to re-jig Victoria into a 21st century station is beginning to bear fruit - the steel framework is already up as this picture shows.
Up the new Victoria goes
Later this year competition will increase when the electrification of the original Liverpool to Manchester line (via Rainhill) is completed.
That will see fast trains linking the two cities using the line made famous by Stephenson‘s Rocket in the 1830s.
This will mean Liverpool to Manchester in half an hour will become the norm.
First TransPennine, as part of its expansion, has introduced a new hourly service from Manchester to Scotland.
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Liverpool to Manchester in 1830 taking on stag and hen parties in a country station somewhere near Newton-le-Willows
The current Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria: a curious picture from the Confidential archive
How Victoria will look
