East Coast Eureka clockface timetable May 2011

[swt_passenger]

1000 Kings Cross - Edinburgh arr 1422 has now appeared, I think it might have been there yesterday.

 

[Ontrack]

I've been concerned about the loss of the fast Peterborough - Edinburgh services. The good news, according to XC, is that the 0700, 0900 and 1300 departures from KX will make the journey in just 3hr 40m, close to the existing fastest time.
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Further to my previous message, the Edinburgh - Peterborough service is not so good. Although there are a number under 3h 50m, the fastest trains all arrive in Peterborough just after the FCC connection has left.

 

[Damien1986]

1000 Kings Cross - Edinburgh arr 1422 has now appeared, I think it might have been there yesterday.

Is this still the departure to Aberdeen?

 

[YorkshireRider]

Is this still the departure to Aberdeen?

Yes, on the new timetable this will be the Aberdeen service (1st stop York)

 

[Stephen_H]

Is the timetable as featured on the XC site likely to include all the Scotrail services? There was never any promise of scotrail picking up any slack, but it was certainly hinted at a few times. However it doesn't appear to be the case based on that site.

The Edinburgh - Motherwell service in the evenings is quite a change. Will be a bit of a rush for people to get to Waverley or Haymarket in time.

Last train is also over an hour earlier than it used to be.

 

[Deerfold]

Is the timetable as featured on the XC site likely to include all the Scotrail services? There was never any promise of scotrail picking up any slack, but it was certainly hinted at a few times. However it doesn't appear to be the case based on that site.

The Edinburgh - Motherwell service in the evenings is quite a change. Will be a bit of a rush for people to get to Waverley or Haymarket in time.

Last train is also over an hour earlier than it used to be.

As has been commented a few times there are some definite gaps in the information in the XC timetable. They do seem to be being filled in but I wouldn't take a lack of anything in it to mean anything just yet.

 

[silentone]

The full Eureka! timetable will be published on 14th February. Or it will be available publicly somewhere from then without having to search XC.

The Aberdeen & Inverness services are sticking to more or less their current timetabled journeys.

There may not be a fast return trip to Edinburgh, but the 0540 will definitely only call at Newcastle.

 

[swt_passenger]

There may not be a fast return trip to Edinburgh, but the 0540 will definitely only call at Newcastle.

I've had a suspicion that might happen.

The reasoning is that there is a bit of a captive market for the first train of the day, so it is OK to assume it will be reasonably full leaving Newcastle, but the return is different, because whatever time you run it there will always be people who'll be happy to take trains before or after, even if they'll take 20 mins longer.

 

[Failed Unit]

I will look forward to seeing, must admit I am concerned from a selfish point of view that the evening services are worse. Both the 1700 and 1800 from what I have seen are no longer valid connections to the Stirling trains so for passengers that used to connect into the x33 you now have longer journeys. The 1800 looks to be a good 15 minutes slower, I was hoping the rumour 1820 fast service would still make the connection valid!

I am surprised the Scottish Government hasnt made an issue of of it if the 1800ish doesn't connect with the 2233. They did years ago when it was proposed the 1730 would terminate at Newcastle and the 1800 would be all stops north of Newcastle for that exact reason. The few minutes added to northbound services looks like it could be a major pain in the rear!

 

[silentone]

There could still be one, there is new information on Eureka! appearing daily and it's not little snippets it's huge great big epic novels of information. I may have missed info about the fast return.

 

[Zoe]

Will the 1000 still be the Flying Scotsman even though it goes to Aberdee or will it be renamed the Northern Lights?

 

[Failed Unit]

There could still be one, there is new information on Eureka! appearing daily and it's not little snippets it's huge great big epic novels of information. I may have missed info about the fast return.

I guess it is the normal wait and see

It looks like from the timings on XC that the 1800 will stop at all shacks north of Newcastle I haven't checked everyone. If the 1820 did run which was the original proposed time then I guess it would pass the 1800 at Newcastle should passengers want to change just like the Southbound arrangement.

It will be on East Coast search engine soon as it currently goes until the 20th May.
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Just taken another look at the timetable as per XC.

Looks like bad news.

1800 kings cross, York, darlington, Newcastle, Berwick, Dunbar and Edinburgh. The dunbar stop giving the massive penalty and the reason for the 2235 arrival rather than around 2220 and breaking the Waverley connections.

1819 London - newcastle.
London, Grantham, York, darlington, Durham and Newcastle.

 

[David Turner]

New timetable now available on East Coast site:


http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/22May

 

[Stephen_H]

The XC site is now showing a new Scotrail Service. 17:42 Edinburgh - Glasgow Central, via Motherwell service.

 

[hooky3]

are the new cross country timetables not up yet?

 

[me123]

The XC site is now showing a new Scotrail Service. 17:42 Edinburgh - Glasgow Central, via Motherwell service.

Fantastic news! That will really make a difference. Having the two services (XC and Scotrail) in such close proximity will actually improve rush hour service for Motherwell. In fact, this is in addition to the existing 18:25 which really improves things, as EDB-MTH is now 5 trains over 2 hours in the evening rush hour.

 

[hooky3]

intresting to see that cross country have a southbound departure at 20:05

does anyone have any idea what the cross country and east coast HST diagrams will be?

 

[Aictos]

New timetable now available on East Coast site:


http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/22May

Slightly early for them isn't it, normally timetables are available about 2 weeks before they start not months before.

Still my only reservation is the fact that they could quite change one or two trains easily.

 

[swt_passenger]

are the new cross country timetables not up yet?

No, I think it's really far too early. Normally what happens is that the journey planners are updated around 13 weeks before the timetable change date, often allowing you to print your own A-B timetable, or make a series of queries to construct your own timetable.

Web versions of pdf timetables usually only start appearing about a month before, and paper versions are available on request at stations about then. You won't see paper timetables in racks until probably the week before.

Going back to XC, the question is whether or not the changes are sufficient to justify advance publicity this far ahead. Taking the Southampton extensions in December as a precedent, they will probably announce it much closer to the time, and it won't result in early visibility of a full XC timetable.


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Slightly early for them isn't it, normally timetables are available about 2 weeks before they start not months before.

But this is an advance info timetable press release - the normal pdf version of the May 22nd timetable booklet probably still won't appear until some time in May, as usual?

 

[First ScotRail]

Xc services are showing on the ticket finder on their website but no prices available

 

[Stephen_H]

Fantastic news! That will really make a difference. Having the two services (XC and Scotrail) in such close proximity will actually improve rush hour service for Motherwell. In fact, this is in addition to the existing 18:25 which really improves things, as EDB-MTH is now 5 trains over 2 hours in the evening rush hour.

Yeah it's not too bad on reflection. 6 trains over the course of less than 2 and a half hours if you start at 17:11 for the XC, 17:19 for the Scotrail Via Shotts slow service, 17:42 for this new Scotrail, 18:25 for the North Berwick service, then 19:11 XC and 19:20ish for the only East Coast service.

Just to be selfish - would love to see have seen a service between 15:30 and 16:30. The gap of 15:11 to 17:11 is still massive, although not as bad as the current 15:23 to 17:37 (ignoring the slower Scotrail service that departs at 17:19 but gets to Motherwell later).

There is also one big concern for me which is simply that if anything goes wrong with services on a given day then the EC service to Glasgow will (citing past precedence here) be THE first to get canned which leaves the 6:50 GLC to EDB service potentially without a train. At least with a few trains going in and out of GLC there would be options. Last thing people want is to be turning up to find out there's no train.

 

[YorkshireRider]

I see the evening Skipton will be a 91, a lot of the drivers at Leeds wer'nt sure if they were going to run out there or not

 

[brompton rail]

intresting to see that cross country have a southbound departure at 20:05

does anyone have any idea what the cross country and east coast HST diagrams will be?

East Coast HSTs are indicated in their newly publishe t/t - see web ref earlier. Why would XC change their HST diagrams from now? 2 Leeds based runs to Plymouth (one starts back at York 06:32), and 2 Edinburgh to Plymouth and back to Leeds.

 

[silentone]

There is also one big concern for me which is simply that if anything goes wrong with services on a given day then the EC service to Glasgow will (citing past precedence here) be THE first to get canned which leaves the 6:50 GLC to EDB service potentially without a train. At least with a few trains going in and out of GLC there would be options. Last thing people want is to be turning up to find out there's no train.

This is wrong. The reason at present as to why Glasgow services tend to be cancelled is because the inbound late running exceed's the turnaround time at Glasgow meaning not only is that service late but the service it works next will also be late. There have been cases recently when Glasgow trains have been 2 hours late before they've even left Glasgow, hence why they get cancelled.

This is extremely unlikely to happen in May because there is only 1 trip in each direction. The set for the morning departure will already be in Glasgow the day before. If that service somehow ends up cancelled because of a fault or something which would prevent it getting to Glasgow then there would be and ECS movement to Glasgow at some point before the next day.

Part of the reason for keeping the 2 Glasgow services was because Craigentinny cannot handle the number of trains which will now be stabled at the depot overnight. At least 1 set would have had to make an ECS movement to Glasgow for overnight servicing then return to Edinburgh Waverley in another ECS movement the next day.

 

[theblackwatch]

Heard it on the radio today that Harrogate is to have a Sunday service to and from London when the new timetable comes into effect.

 

[philjo]

The Saturday service from Stevenage is very bad.

One train every 2 hours to Leeds.

Northbound not too bad - a 20 minute wait at Doncaster for the onward service to York, Newcastle etc.
Southbound if travelling from Newcastle or York, the connections at Doncaster into an EC service to Stevenage mean a 40 wait at Doncaster.
Going via KX not much better as would have an hour to wait there for the xx:52 FCC departure afterwards!

At the moment, there is the 08:20 & 08:49 northbound services from Stevenage to Edinburgh - both of which tend to have a number of passengers boarding, generally a fair proportion of themwith luggage.

At least we still have the 16:30 from Edinburgh on weekdays stopping at Stevenage - including non-stop York to Stevenage.

 

[Stephen_H]

Part of the reason for keeping the 2 Glasgow services was because Craigentinny cannot handle the number of trains which will now be stabled at the depot overnight. At least 1 set would have had to make an ECS movement to Glasgow for overnight servicing then return to Edinburgh Waverley in another ECS movement the next day.

Thanks mate. Bit of reassurance I suppose!

 

[me123]

Just to be selfish - would love to see have seen a service between 15:30 and 16:30. The gap of 15:11 to 17:11 is still massive, although not as bad as the current 15:23 to 17:37 (ignoring the slower Scotrail service that departs at 17:19 but gets to Motherwell later).

I'm with you there. I'd like to see Scotrail running an hourly service between Edinburgh and Glasgow Central via Motherwell and Carstairs, perhaps as an extension of their North Berwick runs. This would nicely supplement the intercity runs.

I don't think it's too far-fetched, but probably not likely whilst we're still having problems with the 380s.

 

[43167]

It looks very good. Harrogate now having a London service every day and Skipton also has a northbound service from Kings Cross on a sunday evening.

 

[NightatLaira]

Does anyone know if the 0540 ex Edinburgh - London (Flying Scotsman) will use the York avoider? Or will it go through the station - line speed isn't supposed to be great on either from what I hear...