(30 Aug 2014, 2:52 pm)Marcus wrote I hate CrossCountry. I wish East Coast stopped at Chester - it's mainly just First TransPennine. There's nothing wrong with them, it just ruins the idea of variety. A First TransPennine every 2 hours (?) in each direction, a couple of peak journeys by Northern Rail and the odd stopping train by CrossCountry really does spoil it, especially when so many different operators go through the station.
There will be a number of factors, but one will be timings that mean not much stops there.
If a CrossStinky is running a few mins in front of an East Coast, it holds up the EC behind.
Cross Stinkys often get held up, so what could be a 10min timetabled lead at York, could (and often is) much less than that.
Coming south, the EC often runs ahead of the CrossStinky (with nowt usually behind it), so there is the possibility that way...