Cautious welcome to rail timetable changes on the East Coast Main Line being postponed

Rail leaders had planned to introduce a new timetable for London to Edinburgh services, with £4bn announced in the Spring Budget to improve services.

But concerns had been raised locally about the potential loss of services, especially in Morpeth and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The final timetable was not confirmed but a draft proposal indicated a reduced number of services each week stopping at the county’s stations, in both the Edinburgh and London directions.

Yesterday (Monday), Network Rail’s director of network performance Chris Curtis said the industry steering group that oversees timetable introduction “concluded that there are too many outstanding issues to have confidence that the new East Coast Main Line timetable can be delivered robustly in December”.

Northumberland County Council has pledged to continue to campaign hard for improved rail services for communities located along the East Coast Main Line and beyond.

In response to the announcement, council leader Glen Sanderson said: “This move is a sensible one – it is important to provide the best local train service which means commuter trains that are reliable and convenient.

“While the proposed changes allowed a businessperson to travel from London to Edinburgh in a few minutes less time, it was at the potential threat to our commuter trains and that was the wrong thing.

“I welcome the change of heart and I hope the idea is put away in a dark cupboard and forgotten.”

Georgina Hill, Northumberland County councillor for Berwick East and rail campaigner, said: “I am obviously glad that a halt has been put to the proposed timetable changes, which would have meant reduced rail services for Berwick and Morpeth.

“However, the fear is that this is just a stay of execution – with the Government worried about public opposition ahead of elections.

“The thinking and priorities of the Government and rail companies are totally skewed. What passengers need is better connectivity, with price, comfort and reliability also really important.

“The priority is not to shave a few minutes of the journey between Edinburgh and London, especially at the cost of connectivity. They just do not seem to get that or the needs of the more rural and northern parts of the country.”

The South East Northumberland Rail User Group (SENRUG) has also responded to the announcement.

Chairman Dennis Fancett said: “SENRUG, along with a wide range of stakeholders, has consistently said the new timetable with its reductions in long distance services at Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick, plus the loss of through local services between Morpeth and MetroCentre, Hexham and Carlisle, would be disastrous for Northumberland.

“It’s a ‘levelling down’ timetable that puts the interests of the overheating economies of London and Edinburgh above the needs of mid-sized market towns in Northumberland.

“So we are pleased its implementation has been delayed yet again, but are concerned the cited reasons are only that this is due to technical issues with implementation and still with no recognition that this is a poor timetable that doesn’t serve the needs of northern communities, and should be scrapped completely.

“We are not against the introduction of a third LNER train per hour between London and Edinburgh, but this should not happen until it can be introduced without cutting back on existing service levels elsewhere.

“It is therefore now incumbent on Network Rail to spell out exactly what capacity enhancements are necessary for this third hourly train to be introduced whilst maintaining current train services at Northumberland stations.

“The rail industry must then make the business case for rapidly delivering these enhancements.”