They swapped which services call at Longport - Skipping Longport gave the Newark Castle to Crewe trains a few more minutes to turnaround at Crewe, improving the reliability of this service. The LNWR Birmingham to Crewe service instead calls at Longport as that service has a much longer turnaround at Crewe. The station is still managed by EMR but is only served by EMR a few times per day.
Nice seeing diverts
This is a EMR operating station. Why does LNWR trains are stopping at the EMR station?
They swapped which services call at Longport - Skipping Longport gave the Newark Castle to Crewe trains a few more minutes to turnaround at Crewe, improving the reliability of this service. The LNWR Birmingham to Crewe service instead calls at Longport as that service has a much longer turnaround at Crewe. The station is still managed by EMR but is only served by EMR a few times per day.