Cuts and increases to services since 2019

[Bald Rick]

However, I think this has come at the expense of the summer Saturday once a day extensions to Pembroke Dock

Pembroke Dock was only ever Saturdays in High summer, and they are still happening (twice a day, as it happens)

Realtime Trains | Departures from Tenby all day on 19/07/2025

Train information at Tenby all day on 19/07/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[ABB125]

Pembroke Dock was only ever Saturdays in High summer, and they are still happening (twice a day, as it happens)

Realtime Trains | Departures from Tenby all day on 19/07/2025

Train information at Tenby all day on 19/07/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Clearly I didn't look far enough in the future...
It was always very interesting to see a full HST set emerge from the undergrowth at a station like Saundersfoot and pass through at walking pace before disappearing again into the vegetation! Not sure a class 800 has quite the same impact

 

[Bald Rick]

Clearly I didn't look far enough in the future...
It was always very interesting to see a full HST set emerge from the undergrowth at a station like Saundersfoot and pass through at walking pace before disappearing again into the vegetation! Not sure a class 800 has quite the same impact

I have a picture somewhere of an HST departing Penally, taken from the footpath level crossing there.

 

[Starmill]

Fishguard is back to about 0.5tph.

I think it has more services in May 2025 than it ever did in the past.

Also who said Eastbourne to London Bridge is returning? I haven't seen any mention of it anywhere

It's definitely out there in the track access applications. Unfortunately I can't immediately lay hands in where.

 

[FenMan]

Waterloo - Reading was 2tph deep into the night. Now 1tph after the 20:20 departure. The later :50 departures now terminate short at Bracknell.

 

[bunnahabhain]

Lincoln to Peterborough now runs all day rather than from 0800 till 1600. Mostly an "hourly" service at random times with the odd ones missing. No more Spalding shuttles from 0600-0800 and 1700-2100.

 

[Falcon1200]

Glasgow Central/Ayrshire, down from 6 trains per hour to 4, with the removal of the express (nonstop between Central and Kilwinning) services.
Glasgow Central/Kilmarnock, still 2 per hour but half of these now also provide the Glasgow/Barrhead all stations service.
Glasgow Queen St High Level/Anniesland, hourly off peak instead of half-hourly.

 

[brad465]

To be honest - it never really got off the ground.

It would be interesting to see how this express would have fared had the IET and electrification rollout not overrun, thus been in service longer before covid. Had it got good patronage it could have been reinstated, but now they're not enough IETs for it after the yaw damper issues arose and a number of them also ended up on regional services between Cardiff and Penzance.

 

[nr758123]

I think the Buxton line briefly gained a half hourly service before Covid, which is now back down to hourly.
Victoria-Ashton-Stalybridge had been hourly with extras in the peaks from the 1990s, and went up to 2 per hour by 2008 (possibly earlier) and briefly 3 per hour (2012-14). Following Covid and electrification, it is now once an hour with no extras at peak times, with sometimes up to a third of the diminished service cancelled.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Victoria-Ashton-Stalybridge had been hourly with extras in the peaks from the 1990s, and went up to 2 per hour by 2008 (possibly earlier) and briefly 3 per hour (2012-14). Following Covid and electrification, it is now once an hour with no extras at peak times, with sometimes up to a third of the diminished service cancelled.

Probably more importantly following Metrolink. Despite being slower, most people will choose the tram's simplicity and frequency over the complexity and low frequency (even at 3tph) of heavy rail, unless going to Stalybridge itself which has other services.

 

[Peter0124]

There is also some bizarre removals of Argyle Line services after 6pm which haven't returned. Notably still an hourly service on the Whifflet line and also an omission of a Larkhall run (2L16/2L19)

Also Friday night extras from Glasgow Central haven't returned unless its the weeks leading to Christmas

 

[MontyP]

Euston-Glasgow via W Mids has been cut from 2-hourly to 4 or 5 per day although I think the missing trains are being reintroduced in the next few months.

Waterloo-Guildford via Epsom has gone from 2tph to 1tph except in the peak
Waterloo-Dorking is the same.
Waterloo-Hounslow-Waterloo circulars have gone

The additional peak Waterloo-Epsom services at 1700/1730/1800 have all gone, as have the morning equivalents in from Epsom and Teddington via Kingston.

The weird evening Hampton Court service that ran non-stop to Surbiton has not reappeared, nor has the strange Esher-Waterloo service that ran non-stop into Waterloo from Raynes Park. Although there is an additional peak into Waterloo from Surbiton.

 

[A S Leib]

Euston-Glasgow via W Mids has been cut from 2-hourly to 4 or 5 per day although I think the missing trains are being reintroduced in the next few months.

Weekday departures from the May timetable change are 0548, 0800, 0939, 1156, 1336 and 1557 southbound and 0716, 0934, 1138, 1338, 1536 and 1737 northbound.

 

[AdamWW]

As a follow up to a thread a few months ago where I asked about changes to stations served by TOCs since December 2019, which services have been cut and haven't been fully restored since then? I can think of (but I'm likely going to be wrong in some cases, and referring to off-peak frequencies)

• Cardiff Bay to Queen Street cut from 5tph to 4tph (with 2tph through to Pontypridd)

This one isn't a case of COVID cuts not being fully restored.

It's a feature of going over to new service patterns that (I hope) will make sense once the new "South Wales Metro" is fully up and running - which will require more infrastructure work and new trains to be put in service, in part so that the line can be run on line of sight operation.
Ultimately the Bay should see 6 trains per hour.

I strongly suspect that 6 tph interacting with the rest of the system will turn out to be less useful overall then the old 5 tph self contained shuttle. Certainly the current service is not reliable - when the line isn't shut completely for infrastructure work.

But of course it's not just about services between Queen Street and the Bay and it will reduce journey times by avoiding the need to change at Queen Street in many cases.

 

[MontyP]

Weekday departures from the May timetable change are 0548, 0800, 0939, 1156, 1336 and 1557 southbound and 0716, 0934, 1138, 1338, 1536 and 1737 northbound.

So that's pretty much back to 2-hourly (finally!)

 

[Class15]

Wasn’t the Leven reopening done recently?

 

[A S Leib]

Wasn’t the Leven reopening done recently?

Yes; I didn't look through ScotRail or SWR for some reason when doing the original list.

 

[NSE]

Euston-Glasgow via W Mids has been cut from 2-hourly to 4 or 5 per day although I think the missing trains are being reintroduced in the next few months.

Waterloo-Guildford via Epsom has gone from 2tph to 1tph except in the peak
Waterloo-Dorking is the same.

The additional peak Waterloo-Epsom services at 1700/1730/1800 have all gone, as have the morning equivalents in from Epsom and Teddington via Kingston.

The weird evening Hampton Court service that ran non-stop to Surbiton has not reappeared, nor has the strange Esher-Waterloo service that ran non-stop into Waterloo from Raynes Park. Although there is an additional peak into Waterloo from Surbiton.

Those ‘one off’ patterns have gone from many places.

I remember c2c had some that skipped a selection of services. I used to like the morning one that was non-stop from
Benfleet. Southern also had plenty such as the coastal mainline services to London Bridge (which do still exist for a couple of places) and lots that did something like skipped Gatwick and run fast to Haywards Heath. Or ran East Croydon - Gatwick Airport - Three Bridges then skipped Haywards Heath (not sure if that one was strictly the case, but you get the idea). There was also a few more of the splitters at places like Haywards Heath where the front portion ran fast to Brighton and the rear was all stations.

The peak now just seems to be an increase in clockface services.

 

[route101]

Evening services on East Kilbride branch after 7pm from half hourly to hourly.

 

[scrapy]

I think the Buxton line briefly gained a half hourly service before Covid, which is now back down to hourly.
Victoria-Ashton-Stalybridge had been hourly with extras in the peaks from the 1990s, and went up to 2 per hour by 2008 (possibly earlier) and briefly 3 per hour (2012-14). Following Covid and electrification, it is now once an hour with no extras at peak times, with sometimes up to a third of the diminished service cancelled.

Stalybridge has at least seen an increase in TPE calls, so it does still have three trains per hour to Victoria (2*TPE+1*Northern) vs (1*TPE+2*Northern) pre 2019.

 

[ScotGG]

So you did! Apologies.

Its fair to say the Abbey Wood branch has gone up to 12tph from nothing.

Though oddly Southeastern services linking to the Elizabeth line at Abbey Wood were reduced after it opened when more people would want to head there from Kent to change.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Waterloo-Hounslow-Waterloo circulars have gone

Some still exist but admittedly during weekday peak hours only rather than their previous half-hourly Mon-Sat.

 

[lione87023]

Avanti Euston to West Midlands - cut from 3tph to 2tph

These are pretty much back to 3tph from September 2025 albeit recast from the pre-Covid / pre Dec 2022 timetable.

TPE:
Manchester Airport-Newcastle service doesn’t run anymore (it provided a 2tph service between Piccadilly and Victoria via the Ordsall Chord).

Scotrail:
Glasgow Queen Street-Edinburgh via Falkirk High is largely 2tph off peak (used to be 4tph but still is on Saturdays).
Edinburgh to Helensburgh Ctl reduced from 4tph to 2tph off peak.
I’m also pretty sure there was at least an hourly Glasgow QS HL to Edinburgh via Cumbernauld pre-Covid.

SWR:
Waterloo-Portsmouth XX:15 semi fasts removed off peak (and VV) and stops south of Haslemere distributed to some of the faster services (mainly the XX:00s).

Northern:
2tph Liverpool LS to Manchester Oxford Rd via Warrington is now 1tph with the opposite 1tph terminating at Warrington Central.

WMT:
Euston-Birmingham New Street is now 2tph not 3tph. Essentially 1 starts/terminates at Milton Keynes from Euston now. It has however increased Birmingham New St to Birmingham Intl to 2tph from 1tph (and they start / terminate at Rugeley TV).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Euston-Birmingham New Street is now 2tph not 3tph. Essentially 1 starts/terminates at Milton Keynes from Euston now. It has however increased Birmingham New St to Birmingham Intl to 2tph from 1tph (and they start / terminate at Rugeley TV).

It was only ever meaningfully 2 because one of them was overtaken. The new pattern works a lot better in my experience though could do with longer trains.

 

[A S Leib]

WMT:
Euston-Birmingham New Street is now 2tph not 3tph. Essentially 1 starts/terminates at Milton Keynes from Euston now. It has however increased Birmingham New St to Birmingham Intl to 2tph from 1tph (and they start / terminate at Rugeley TV).

And no through WMT services through New Street (except Four Oaks / Lichfield to Redditch / Bromsgrove, Walsall to Wolverhampton, and Birmingham International to Rugeley Trent Valley), but that by itself hasn't meant a loss in frequency and probably should have happened anyway.

 

[hexagon789]

I’m also pretty sure there was at least an hourly Glasgow QS HL to Edinburgh via Cumbernauld pre-Covid.

It was half-hourly, it was essentially to make up for the de-scoping of EGIP, which was to have offered 6tph Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High. Having 2tph via Cumbernauld allowed them to say they had implemented 6tph.

Unfortunately the via Cumbernauld service was poorly patronised so was cut back to just an hourly Glasgow QS to Falkirk Grahamston service.

 

[Failed Unit]

Hertford / Welwyn Garden City - Moorgate reduced to half hourly from 4tph
Cambridge - Welwyn Garden City - London King Cross (the local ones) terminating lots at Letchworth off peak (Local stations Royston - Cambridge) No hourly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And no through WMT services through New Street (except Four Oaks / Lichfield to Redditch / Bromsgrove, Walsall to Wolverhampton, and Birmingham International to Rugeley Trent Valley), but that by itself hasn't meant a loss in frequency and probably should have happened anyway.

One of the few benefits of COVID was ending the disastrous Euston-New St-Liverpool/Rugeley etc services that (predictably) absolutely destroyed the south WCML.

 

[A S Leib]

From the thread linked in the first post (including some already said), a lot of them previously having been scarce extensions

• London Overground serves Barking Riverside
• Avanti no longer has 2tpd to Shrewsbury
• Chiltern no longer has 1tpd (even less frequently?) to West Ealing (I think due to HS2 engineering rather than Covid?)
• CrossCountry no longer has limited services at Bath, Guildford and Newquay
• EMR no longer has limited Leeds, York and Scarborough services
• Southern no longer has peak services on most of the Sutton loop or to Guildford
• Thameslink no longer serves Cambridge North
• Greater Anglia no longer serves King's Lynn or Edmonton Green
• GWR's daily Brighton service withdrawn
• LNER's Glasgow, Sunderland and starting / terminating Stirling services cut, daily Middlesbrough service started
• Northern no longer runs via Derby
• ScotRail / Northern no longer have a through Newcastle to Glasgow via Dumfries service
• South Western Bristol services cut back to Westbury
• TfW services via Stafford withdrawn
• Some TPE Redcar services extended to Saltburn (I think 3tpd in the current timetable, having been hourly last year)

 

[Halish Railway]

Stalybridge has at least seen an increase in TPE calls, so it does still have three trains per hour to Victoria (2*TPE+1*Northern) vs (1*TPE+2*Northern) pre 2019.

This is incorrect, the last pre-Covid timetable had;

Northern:
1tph to Manchester Victoria
1tph to Southport

TPE:
1tph Huddersfield to Manchester Piccadilly (plus rush hour extras)
1tph Hull to Manchester Piccadilly
1tph Scarborough to Liverpool Lime Street