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suzyscottdotcomThe Winter train timetables started this past weekend. While the majority of changes appear to be routine, there are several that are not – Great Northern/Thameslink, Brighton Lines, West Coast Mainline, and Scotland being four areas I’ve used recently, and worth a mention here for the extensive nature of the changes.
While the First Capital Connect “Great Northern” Line will see the majority of changes in May 2009, there are one or two changes, including a couple more trains that split from eight cars to four, one at Letchworth, and one at Royston. The Thameslink upgrade programme will see more trains to more destinations by the end of 2015, and a new website created at www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk In March 2009, the current Thameslink trains from Bedford and Luton via Farringdon to Barbican and Moorgate will cease to call at the latter two stations, with new trains, jointly with SouthEastern, running between Kentish Town via Thameslink line to Elephant & Castle, before continuing to Orpington, Sevenoaks, Ashford International, and Gillingham. Further changes can be expected in the coming years.
Brighton Lines have also been heavily revised. Southern Railway now controls Gatwick Express trains, and changes have been made as a result of a route utilisation strategy. In brief, some peak time Gatwick Airport – London Victoria express non-stop trains have been extended to run to/from Brighton, new half-hourly trains between London Charing Cross, Couldson South and Redhill, hourly direct to Reigate and stations to Tonbridge, together with double frequency London Bridge to Horsham, and London Victoria to the Arun Valley area, to give Redhill six trains per hour, and Couldson South four trains per hour to London (these replace the existing services). There will also be a new hourly service from London Victoria limited stop to Haywards Heath, then all stops to Brighton – replacing the service to/from Watford Junction. The section between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction by Southern will be replaced with a new hourly service from East Croydon via all stations to Clapham Junction, then Kensington Olympia, Shepherds Bush, and main stations to Watford Junction, with the service being extended further up the West Coast mainline to/from Milton Keynes Central in January.
The West Coast route was subject to a huge rebuilding plan over the last few years, and now, finally, the passengers and operators get to see the positive aspects of this. Virgin Trains have changed timetables and stopping plans, and introduced a raft of improvements. (This additionally involved hiring a coach from Stagecoach West Scotland to use as a mobile briefing vehicle to inform staff - the vehicle then did a similar role with East Midlands Trains). From public timetables, the three main changes are a 50% increase in train departures from London Euston to Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, so both these corridors will normally have a train every 20 minutes weekdays, and most of the weekends too – apparently, the most frequent train service over such a distance anywhere in Europe, according to the editor of the Thomas Cook timetable series. Stopping patterns have been revised on longer distance trains, taking out some of the stops in the south for travellers from the north – Glasgow services now mostly run non-stop south of Warrington, saving more time (indeed, from Monday 26 January, there will be a 1630 London – non-stop to Preston – non-stop to Glasgow, which is on my ‘to do one day’ list!). Additionally, one train per day will start/end at Wrexham via Stafford. An hourly service from Chester to London will start on 26 January 2009 – a huge improvement on the current level of service. The reason for the second set of changes in January is to give the new schedules, equipment, and all the aspects surrounding this, time to bed in. Thus, the Chester VT services, the MK extension of the East Croydon service from Southern, as well as some enhancements from London Midland, will all be held until then. This reduce the number of train paths into London for the first few weeks, and reduce the chances for things going wrong!
Scotland’s network improvements have occurred, including two trains an hour standardised on Aberdeen – Dundee, with alternate trains to Edinburgh (but these become limited stop, mostly calling only Leuchars, Kirkcaldy, Inverkething and Haymaket) or Glasgow. There will be additional trains from Dundee semi-fast to Edinburgh (i.e. Leuchars, Cupar, Ladybank, Markinch, Kirkcaldy, Inverkething, Haymarket) , plus additional hourly trains from Cowdenbeath (hourly) via Dunfermline Town (half hourly) to Edinburgh and Newcraighall, on top of the current Fife Circle service. The Dunblane/Bathgate – Edinburgh – Newcraighall trains now start/end at Edinburgh Waverly, and the Markinch – Edinburgh stopping trains will run to/from Glenrothes with Thornton instead – giving two trains an hour for most areas of the Fife Circle, while Markinch has two semi-fast trains an hour between Dundee or Perth and Edinburgh. Perth – Edinburgh is now also hourly, for most of the day, plus the Aberdeen – Inverness route is now hourly as far as Inverurie. These changes follow the shifting of most freight from the Forth (Rail) Bridge onto the new Alloa-Stirling link (assuming this has happened) and a route utilisation survey. The new timetables show little resemblance to First corporate ownership, as a new Saltire based logo has been developed for the Scotrail brand, with the website reverting to www.scotrail.co.uk - as it was pre-First ownership. The timetables do, also, show that Laurencekirk Station may (re)open during the currency of the timetable!
Other changes of note – locally, East Midlands Trains are out of Cambridge. The one early morning train from Cambridge to Liverpool Lime Street at 0727 (Mon-Fri) or 0725 (Sat) day revised to start at Ely at 0744, then running to Liverpool Lime Street. National Express East Anglia are doing an extra from Cambridge to Ely to connect with this, at 0722 Mon-Sat. The one train by East Midlands Trains going the other way, at 0617 (Mon-Fri) or 0620 (Sat) Cambridge to Norwich (2210 Mon-Sat return) will be operated by National Express East Anglia. There are major changes on the East Midland Mainline out of St Pancras, with additional and faster journeys in many areas.
Otherwise, across the south east area, Chiltern Railways have extended some trains from Aylesbury to a new station at Aylesbury Vale Parkway, which is apparently a combination of portacabins at the moment! The 2024 (Mon-Fri)/2027 (Sat) CrossCountry train from Birmingham New Street to Cambridge now runs at 2022, but continues beyond Cambridge to Audley End, and Stansted Airport. I was on this back in the summer, with quite a few passengers wishing to travel beyond Cambridge! CrossCountry have discontinued their trains to Brighton however, with trains running via Guildford now terminating there, and those via Kensington Olympia discontinued. South West Trains will have an additional 0642 Basingstoke – London Waterloo service on weekdays, arriving at 0741, and providing an additional 400 seats in the morning peak.
While the First Capital Connect “Great Northern” Line will see the majority of changes in May 2009, there are one or two changes, including a couple more trains that split from eight cars to four, one at Letchworth, and one at Royston. The Thameslink upgrade programme will see more trains to more destinations by the end of 2015, and a new website created at www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk In March 2009, the current Thameslink trains from Bedford and Luton via Farringdon to Barbican and Moorgate will cease to call at the latter two stations, with new trains, jointly with SouthEastern, running between Kentish Town via Thameslink line to Elephant & Castle, before continuing to Orpington, Sevenoaks, Ashford International, and Gillingham. Further changes can be expected in the coming years.
Brighton Lines have also been heavily revised. Southern Railway now controls Gatwick Express trains, and changes have been made as a result of a route utilisation strategy. In brief, some peak time Gatwick Airport – London Victoria express non-stop trains have been extended to run to/from Brighton, new half-hourly trains between London Charing Cross, Couldson South and Redhill, hourly direct to Reigate and stations to Tonbridge, together with double frequency London Bridge to Horsham, and London Victoria to the Arun Valley area, to give Redhill six trains per hour, and Couldson South four trains per hour to London (these replace the existing services). There will also be a new hourly service from London Victoria limited stop to Haywards Heath, then all stops to Brighton – replacing the service to/from Watford Junction. The section between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction by Southern will be replaced with a new hourly service from East Croydon via all stations to Clapham Junction, then Kensington Olympia, Shepherds Bush, and main stations to Watford Junction, with the service being extended further up the West Coast mainline to/from Milton Keynes Central in January.
The West Coast route was subject to a huge rebuilding plan over the last few years, and now, finally, the passengers and operators get to see the positive aspects of this. Virgin Trains have changed timetables and stopping plans, and introduced a raft of improvements. (This additionally involved hiring a coach from Stagecoach West Scotland to use as a mobile briefing vehicle to inform staff - the vehicle then did a similar role with East Midlands Trains). From public timetables, the three main changes are a 50% increase in train departures from London Euston to Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, so both these corridors will normally have a train every 20 minutes weekdays, and most of the weekends too – apparently, the most frequent train service over such a distance anywhere in Europe, according to the editor of the Thomas Cook timetable series. Stopping patterns have been revised on longer distance trains, taking out some of the stops in the south for travellers from the north – Glasgow services now mostly run non-stop south of Warrington, saving more time (indeed, from Monday 26 January, there will be a 1630 London – non-stop to Preston – non-stop to Glasgow, which is on my ‘to do one day’ list!). Additionally, one train per day will start/end at Wrexham via Stafford. An hourly service from Chester to London will start on 26 January 2009 – a huge improvement on the current level of service. The reason for the second set of changes in January is to give the new schedules, equipment, and all the aspects surrounding this, time to bed in. Thus, the Chester VT services, the MK extension of the East Croydon service from Southern, as well as some enhancements from London Midland, will all be held until then. This reduce the number of train paths into London for the first few weeks, and reduce the chances for things going wrong!
Scotland’s network improvements have occurred, including two trains an hour standardised on Aberdeen – Dundee, with alternate trains to Edinburgh (but these become limited stop, mostly calling only Leuchars, Kirkcaldy, Inverkething and Haymaket) or Glasgow. There will be additional trains from Dundee semi-fast to Edinburgh (i.e. Leuchars, Cupar, Ladybank, Markinch, Kirkcaldy, Inverkething, Haymarket) , plus additional hourly trains from Cowdenbeath (hourly) via Dunfermline Town (half hourly) to Edinburgh and Newcraighall, on top of the current Fife Circle service. The Dunblane/Bathgate – Edinburgh – Newcraighall trains now start/end at Edinburgh Waverly, and the Markinch – Edinburgh stopping trains will run to/from Glenrothes with Thornton instead – giving two trains an hour for most areas of the Fife Circle, while Markinch has two semi-fast trains an hour between Dundee or Perth and Edinburgh. Perth – Edinburgh is now also hourly, for most of the day, plus the Aberdeen – Inverness route is now hourly as far as Inverurie. These changes follow the shifting of most freight from the Forth (Rail) Bridge onto the new Alloa-Stirling link (assuming this has happened) and a route utilisation survey. The new timetables show little resemblance to First corporate ownership, as a new Saltire based logo has been developed for the Scotrail brand, with the website reverting to www.scotrail.co.uk - as it was pre-First ownership. The timetables do, also, show that Laurencekirk Station may (re)open during the currency of the timetable!
Other changes of note – locally, East Midlands Trains are out of Cambridge. The one early morning train from Cambridge to Liverpool Lime Street at 0727 (Mon-Fri) or 0725 (Sat) day revised to start at Ely at 0744, then running to Liverpool Lime Street. National Express East Anglia are doing an extra from Cambridge to Ely to connect with this, at 0722 Mon-Sat. The one train by East Midlands Trains going the other way, at 0617 (Mon-Fri) or 0620 (Sat) Cambridge to Norwich (2210 Mon-Sat return) will be operated by National Express East Anglia. There are major changes on the East Midland Mainline out of St Pancras, with additional and faster journeys in many areas.
Otherwise, across the south east area, Chiltern Railways have extended some trains from Aylesbury to a new station at Aylesbury Vale Parkway, which is apparently a combination of portacabins at the moment! The 2024 (Mon-Fri)/2027 (Sat) CrossCountry train from Birmingham New Street to Cambridge now runs at 2022, but continues beyond Cambridge to Audley End, and Stansted Airport. I was on this back in the summer, with quite a few passengers wishing to travel beyond Cambridge! CrossCountry have discontinued their trains to Brighton however, with trains running via Guildford now terminating there, and those via Kensington Olympia discontinued. South West Trains will have an additional 0642 Basingstoke – London Waterloo service on weekdays, arriving at 0741, and providing an additional 400 seats in the morning peak.
