Topic: Merseyrail - now with added 777

[John_P]

On a side note, I think expanding Liverpool airport is possible, but it would be expensive.  I think the same company owns both Liverpool and Manchester airports, so they're not interested in having them compete.

Always seems to come down to the amount of passengers the airport handles doesn't require a train link. But then saying they can't expand further without a train link.

[Licky]

The 507 is destined to become a museum piece;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx88nq5jy57o

Looks more likely it will be scrapped as the crowd funder to raise 10k to move it to a museum doesn’t have long left and it’s only 3k

[Red Beret]

Always seems to come down to the amount of passengers the airport handles doesn't require a train link. But then saying they can't expand further without a train link.

And yet they briefly had a Liverpool to New York air route. So it's more than capable.

[Fromola]

Pretty sure Rotheram's manifest for regional mayor mentioned a shuttle bus to the airport. It's really badly needed, as you say it's ridiculous that there isn't a better connection to the airport. South Parkway is advertised as "for Liverpool airport", but they don't say you have to get a local bus and buy another ticket!

I don't know why they can't just have a shuttle bus that goes direct to/from the airport from South Parkway, even if they just charge the standard 2 quid bus fare. I know there's plans in place for the gliders but even that's still a few years away. 10-15 minutes on the train from town, 10-15 minutes on the bus from Parkway. If the service is frequent enough it makes it a lot easier.

[Red Beret]

i'm still not sure what the plan is around Central Station. I don't see how they can bring the High level station back into being, as the Northern Line occupies the space with twin tracks where once there was three. You can't just put a third railway track back down there. There's a suggestion of using the Wapping Tunnel and having trains go via Edge Hill. The Northern Line and Wapping Tunnels intersect roughly by the Black-E and Chinese Arch, so I'm presuming some kind of link tunnel would need to be cut between the two? What type of trains would run on this line, if they're going via Central Station low level? Diesel? Or battery powered 777s?

The proposed tunnel between Lime Street and Central seems to be just for pedestrians, yes?

[rob1966]

And yet they briefly had a Liverpool to New York air route. So it's more than capable.

I never knew this so had to Google it, low passenger numbers killed it off. Although breaking the law by the plane flying to New York with two faulty sensors won't have helped.

[Red Beret]

I never knew this so had to Google it, low passenger numbers killed it off. Although breaking the law by the plane flying to New York with two faulty sensors won't have helped.

I remember it well as Yoko Ono inaugurated the route. I didn't know the plane was iffy though, that's not good.

That was when there was talk of extending the runway for 4 engined planes. I don't think a second runway would be possible without encroaching on the Garston coastal nature reserve; certainly not without removing the farmland around neighbouring Oglet.

[Statto Red]

I remember it well as Yoko Ono inaugurated the route. I didn't know the plane was iffy though, that's not good.

That was when there was talk of extending the runway for 4 engined planes. I don't think a second runway would be possible without encroaching on the Garston coastal nature reserve; certainly not without removing the farmland around neighbouring Oglet.

Yeah, i just about remember it, the Airliner went bankrupt not long after they launched the Liverpool-New York flight, they had a stench of cowboy operator about them though, amongst issues a flight was ordered to land 600 miles from it's destination as the crew hours were up, they had ETOPS [Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards] suspension which meant, transatlantic flights were forced to adopt a flight path which never took the aircraft more than an hour away from the nearest airport, in case of engine problems

[Bennett]

On a side note, I think expanding Liverpool airport is possible, but it would be expensive.  I think the same company owns both Liverpool and Manchester airports, so they're not interested in having them compete.

Why wouldn't they? It's a win-win for them.

[rob1966]

I remember it well as Yoko Ono inaugurated the route. I didn't know the plane was iffy though, that's not good.

That was when there was talk of extending the runway for 4 engined planes. I don't think a second runway would be possible without encroaching on the Garston coastal nature reserve; certainly not without removing the farmland around neighbouring Oglet.

Scottish company called FlyGlobeSpan

This particular Boeing 757 had two Engine Pressure sensors out, it was reported by the crew of an earlier flight and while not unsafe, it meant that the crew had to do a lot more work to do manually calculate if the engines were running OK - the engineer, who also was the flight operation director, declared it airworthy, once it took off they were breaking the law and got fined for flying a plane without a certificate of air worthines.

[rob1966]

Why wouldn't they? It's a win-win for them.

It's probably that with the expense of expanding, cost of staff, if you enlarge Liverpool then Jet2, Easy jet etc will just move flights from Manchester to Liverpool rather than create new routes, they won't make enough money - they're spending a couple of billion on Manc as it is

[Statto Red]

The service to Headbolt Lane is back to every 15 minutes