Does this sound familiar? It’s been a long day at work. You run from the office to the train station, praying that your train isn’t delayed again, and, in a stroke of luck, you’re just in time. You hop on and immediately realise it is packed and that despite paying full price, you will not have a seat. Defeated, you make a mental note to grab a bottle of wine before getting home.
Busy, unreliable trains are as much a feature of British life as cups of tea, but one of the nation’s busiest routes is set to improve and get some much needed TLC. The East Coast Mainline (ECML), which connects cities like London, York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh, has just had its new timetable, which will add as many as six million seats a year, or roughly 16,000 a day, approved by the Government.
As well as better connecting the capital with every city on the route, more trains will be added between Yorkshire, the north-east, and Scotland, meaning that it will be easier than ever to get around without needing to change in the south. Many smaller local services will also see a boost.
According to LNER, who operate most trains on the line, the new timetable will also result in ‘reductions in journey times to long distance services’ such as between Edinburgh or Newcastle and London. Other, smaller changes will include:
- TransPennine express services between Edinburgh and Newcastle increasing to eight per day in each direction
- More Northern trains between Sheffield and Leeds, and Middlesbrough and Newcastle
- All Thameslink or Northern services will be able to pass through Cambridge south, which is a brand new station due to open in late 2025
Overall, it is hoped that these plans will ease pressure on an extremely busy transport route, and make travelling by train both easier and more pleasant for passengers. Don’t get too excited though; these plans won’t come into effect until December next year, so we’ve got another 12 months of the current situation to get through first.
Train travel with Time Out
Loco for locomotives? In other recent news from our railways, the UK’s first community-owned railway service will open in 2025, these three northern English cities will soon be linked by more frequent train services and UK rail fares are now officially the most expensive in all of Europe.
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