Crewe traffic
The changing pattern of passenger services through Crewe station in pre-COVID-19 2020 compared with 1975.
Crewe joined the railway network in 1837, when the Grand Junction Railway opened its line from Birmingham to Warrington with onward connection to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway - creating links between the West Midlands and the two major cities in the North West.
During the 1840s, Crewe’s location proved ideal for new lines to Manchester, Chester and ultimately Holyhead, to Shrewsbury for South Wales, and to Stoke-on-Trent for the Potteries and East Midlands.
With such a confluence of routes, it was inevitable that locomotive servicing facilities would be provided. Eventually, Crewe was chosen for the major works for the London & North Western Railway (as successor to the Grand Junction) and its later incarnations. The changing of locomotives became a regular practice for a century.
The growth in rail traffic over the following century led to rebuilding in 1867 and 1902. The buildings on the present Platforms 5 and 6 date from the first of these and are Grade 2-listed.
Recognising the need to relieve congestion through the station, new independent lines were built to the west to carry the majority of freight services. These opened in 1901.
Forty-five years ago, Crewe was witnessing the first year of the revised timetable associated with the ‘Electric Scots’ services, following inauguration of through London
Glasgow electric running in May 1974. Except for Euston-North Wales traffic, the longstanding practice of motive power changing at Crewe had ended.
For the casual observer, perhaps the biggest difference between 1975 and 2020 is in motive power. Today, timetabled daytime services are formed of electric or diesel multiple units, whereas in 1975, Class 1 express passenger workings were all locomotive-hauled.
Another most notable change concerns rolling stock liveries. Back then, corporate Rail Blue was omnipresent, whereas now there is a kaleidoscope of colours and styles.
What changes have occurred to the services? Most marked is the absence now of mail, parcels and newspaper traffic. While the last two withered on the vine to road competition, Royal Mail ended its use of travelling post offices ( TPOs) from January 2004. These trains had conveyed Royal Mail staff who sorted mail during the journey.
Crewe used to be a major hub for transhipment. During the day there was the loading and unloading of mail bags, which were corralled in or on trolleys. In the evening, mail services arrived from Peterborough and Cardiff, as well as North Wales, to feed into trains bound for north west England and Scotland. Four trains called at Crewe bound for Carlisle or Glasgow, with one each for Holyhead, Liverpool or Manchester.
Among these was the famous West Coast TPO linking Euston with Glasgow and
Aberdeen, described by some as the most important train on the line. The Down TPO was allowed 23 minutes to effect unloading and loading.
In 1975, the connections from Peterborough and Cardiff brought exotic traction for the period, in the form of Class 31s and ‘46s’ respectively. Today, Royal Mail runs Class
325 electric multiple units between its hubs at Willesden, Warrington and beyond, but mail is not transhipped at Crewe and the hive of activity after most passenger movements had ended is history.
Staying with the dark hours, until the inauguration of West Coast electrification in 1966, the majority of Anglo-Scottish trains ran overnight because of the duration of the journey. As these transits shortened, so did the number of night services. By 1975 four remained, at least one of which only conveyed sleeping cars.
Other overnight passenger trains serving Scottish destinations from London were to Inverness, Perth and to Stranraer Harbour. The final Down Anglo-Scottish passenger working conveyed Sleepers and day coaches from Bristol. Southbound, the Stranraer Harbour-Euston ended overnight passenger moves at Crewe at 0509.
The 1974 timetable retained overnight services linking the capital with Liverpool, Manchester and Barrow-in-Furness, with the latter dropping off a sleeping car at
Preston. The other two cities benefited from two combined workings (one composed of only Sleepers), which split their respective portions at Stafford. The Manchester portions operated via Stoke-on-Trent and so only those for Liverpool came through Crewe. The final service was the overnight Irish boat train to Holyhead.
All the overnight trains were composed of Mk 1 vehicles that had vacuum brakes. This precluded the use of new Class 87s, which only had train air braking equipment, so instead the type was deployed on Class 4 liners and company traffic (thereby bringing a resurgence of the older electric types to passenger duties).
Today, Caledonian Sleeper operates two services from Euston, formed of its new Mk 5 stock. The 2115 ‘Highlander’ conveys coaches for Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness, which divide at Edinburgh. Following at 2350 is the ‘Lowlander’, which serves Edinburgh and Glasgow but does not call at Crewe.
With competing air options and much shorter rail journey times, these are now the only surviving Sleeper routes northbound from any London terminus. By contrast, in 1975 King’s Cross had several Sleeper trains, while until around that time St Pancras sent a service via the old Midland Railway route to Carlisle and onward to Glasgow via Dumfries.
Back in 1975, there were separate diesel and electric maintenance depots at Crewe, as well as a carriage servicing facility on the Up side to the south of the station. Coupled with traction changing, this ensured there was always traction in the environs of the station.
Today, while the electric depot survives, the diesel depot is slowly returning to life after nearly two decades of closure. However, the biggest transformation has been to the carriage shed, which has become a major traction and rolling stock facility dealing with a surprising number of trainsets during the small hours. These usually arrive having completed their last journey at Crewe, and then head off from around 0400 either as empty stock or to commence the day’s public services from the station.
Before rail franchises were suspended for at least six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic ( RAIL 902), Crewe services had been operated by five passenger operators - four of which held franchises with one (Northern) run by the Government’s Operator Of Last Resort.
Avanti West Coast (AWC) uses Class 390 or ‘221’ tilting trains to provide 125mph services that would have been branded InterCity in 1975. The present service pattern (again preCOVID) is the Very High Frequency timetable introduced several years ago by Virgin
For the casual observer, perhaps the biggest difference between 1975 and 2020 is in motive power. Today, timetabled daytime services are formed of electric or diesel multiple units, whereas in 1975, Class 1 express passenger workings were all locomotive-hauled.
Trains and which built on the changes following the West Coast upgrade around the turn of the millennium.
Forty-five years ago, the prestige nonPullman daytime train was the ‘Royal Scot’ - the 1045 out of Euston which for publicity purposes was planned to complete its LondonGlasgow run in exactly five hours. To achieve this involved reducing the timing load by one coach and diagramming a Class 87, whereas all other diagrams were based on the less powerful Class 86. It called only at Preston.
During the rest of the day, Glasgow was served by trains that ran virtually every hour and which stopped only at principal stations in order to keep end-to-end transits to around 5¼ hours.
Travellers for intermediate places between Crewe and Carlisle had services that ran roughly hourly from Euston and which alternated between Blackpool North or Carlisle. North Wales had several trains to Holyhead or Bangor. Liverpool services were hourly but generally did not stop at Crewe. Cross-country travellers from Birmingham might arrive at Crewe hourly on trains that had started from either the South Coast or West of England, and which continued to Liverpool or Scotland.
Today, the principal services from Euston to the North West and Scotland are hourly, take around 4½ hours end-to-end, and make their first call at Warrington Bank Quay.
This is augmented hourly by extending a Euston-Wolverhampton train to Glasgow or Edinburgh, and these serve Crewe.
Blackpool North now has a reinstated direct connection to the capital, with five workings, some of which call at Crewe. Chester, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly benefit from hourly timetables, while some of the former are extended to Holyhead to link into ferries to the Republic of Ireland.
East Midlands Railway (EMR) runs the hourly stopping timetable between Crewe and Derby using a 75mph ‘Sprinter’-type train. This is the only instance of service regression compared with 1975, when these trains continued to Lincoln St Marks via Nottingham.
London Northwestern Railway (LNWR) is responsible for a service pattern quite unlike anything that existed in 1974.
The operator uses four Class 350 EMUs hourly. Two start at Liverpool Lime Street and run to Birmingham New Street, with one going forward to Euston. A third set starts at Crewe and follows a circuitous route through Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham New Street and
Northampton, arriving in London 3½ hours later.
Pity the poor London-bound passenger who boards this service by mistake, anticipating a 1½-hour high-speed run! The fourth set serves intermediate locations between Stafford and Rugby before a fast run-up to the capital, calling at Milton Keynes Central.
Northern’s appearances are on hourly Class 2 locals in the direction of Manchester and Liverpool. The first centres on two workings along the routes into Manchester Piccadilly. One serves Manchester Airport and the Styal line before heading for Liverpool Lime Street via Piccadilly and the Chat Moss route, while the second runs through Stockport to serve the intermediate stations.
A very tight turnaround of just four minutes is required for the arrival from
The biggest transformation has been to the carriage shed, which has become a major traction and rolling stock facility dealing with a surprising number of trainsets during the small hours.
Liverpool, before the Class 319 EMU sets off for Manchester Piccadilly. The direct route to Liverpool is along the West Coast Main Line to Weaver Junction and Runcorn.
Transport for Wales (TfW) operates the North & West Marches route to Cardiff.
Service improvements began from November 1976, when Class 120 ‘Cross Country’ DMUs were substituted by Crewebased Class 25s hauling six-car rakes of Mk 1s. These in turn gave way first to Class 33 and then ‘37/4’ traction, with journeys extended north of Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street.
With DMUs eventually taking over, TfW now provides an hourly timetable that links Manchester to Cardiff with some trains continuing to Carmarthen or Milford Haven.
This service transformation since 1975 is probably the most impressive, with the principal station services pathed for 100mph DMUs and running Manchester-Cardiff in a little over three hours at an average of 54mph.
Stations between Crewe and Shrewsbury have a separate two-hourly timetable. Finally, TfW provides an hourly service between Crewe and Chester, where connection can be made into the operator’s trains that originate in Manchester and run along the North Wales coast.
Another significant benefit today has been a broadening of daytime operations, with the first trains starting earlier and the last trains arriving later.
In 1975, the 0625 Crewe-Liverpool EMU began the day’s passenger activities, while the first inter-city working was the 0625 Liverpool-Euston, which called at 0706.
Nowadays, activity is well under way before 0600, with the Manchester Piccadilly-Euston calling at 0536 - 90 minutes earlier than in 1975 and a few minutes before the southbound ‘Lowlander’ Sleeper.
At the other end of the day, Crewe Carriage Sidings is the destination of rolling stock from all routes, which bring terminating workings into the station before going to the depot for servicing. The 2155 ex-Cardiff brings down the curtain at 0103.
Prior to this influx, the final two through daytime workings serve Crewe just before 2300. Both go forward to Liverpool and Preston (having originated at Euston).
Their equivalents also brought down the curtain in 1975, running about 20 minutes earlier and with the Liverpool working not stopping. Strictly speaking, the 1830 Aberystwyth-York mail might be classed as a daytime train, although it did not leave Crewe until 2230.
In summary, Crewe continues to be an important railway centre. And it enjoys a much better level of service now than in 1975. Whether this has been demand-led or supplyled is for others to judge, but we are a far more mobile and populous nation than 45 years ago.
Privatisation has been a critical factor in terms of supply. British Rail’s ability to invest was always at the ultimate whim of the Treasury, because its borrowing formed part of the public sector borrowing requirement and the provision for the extra rolling stock operating today would not have been funded back then.
The private sector does not have this constraint and can invest, provided lenders will support the project.
Would we wish to return to 1975 train service levels? Unlikely.