New rail timetable coming next month

NORHERN'S Trains across the North of England will switch to a new timetable next month, from:- Sunday, 2 June 2024. Northern says the majority of its services are largely unaffected, but some have been re-timed and there are a handful of service changes. Rail users can check what the new timetable means for them and their local Station using the:- 'Check My Timetable' feature on the Northern website.

Among the changes that are taking place:-

• In the North East... The timetable outlines plans for the 1st passenger services to operate on the new Northumberland Line, with Newcastle and Ashington connected by a ˝ hourly service Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays from the autumn. Services will call at:- Newsham and Seaton Delaval, with some also calling at:- Manors Station.
  

• In Yorkshire and the East Midlands... There will be additional stops and extra capacity on some services from:- Leeds to Skipton and Stations in Cumbria. In the Calder Valley, more services will stop at:- Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd and Low Moor. There will be extra capacity on services from:- Leeds to Harrogate and York. Meanwhile, there will be a reduction in capacity on services between:- Sheffield and Huddersfield whilst engineering work takes place.
  

• In the North West... There will be an increase in capacity on services between:- Manchester Airport and Liverpool Lime Street. Sunday services between:- Buxton and Manchester Piccadilly will make additional calls at:- Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme. And a new Saturday service from Rochdale will link:- Blackburn, Bolton, Manchester and Salford, with the Yorkshire Dales via Clitheroe.

Matt Rice, the new chief operating Officer at Northern, said:- "We're all set for the new timetable next month. The vast majority of services are unaffected by the change, but there are a small number of services that have been re-timed. Customers should use the:- 'Check My Timetable' tool on the website to see the changes that affect their local Station."

For more information about the new timetable, visit:- NorthernRailway.Co.UK.

Research analysed by West Somerset Railway has revealed a 1 million rise of passengers using Merseyrail in the last recorded quarter

A new study has discovered that in the last quarter of 2023, there was a 15% increase of passenger journeys on Merseyrail trains. The research, by West Somerset Railway, analysed newly released data from the Office of Rail and Road's 'Passenger rail usage:- October to December 2023' report.

Merseyrail served 7.5 million rail users in the last quarter, that's a 15% increase from the same time a year prior which was 6.5 million.

At the top of the table was:- Elizbeth Line (40%), Avanti West Coast was 2nd (8.5%), and ScotRail came 3rd (34%).

Looking at England, Scotland and Wales altogether, 417 million rail passenger journeys were recorded in Great Britain between:- October to December 2023, a 20% rise from the same period the previous year, which saw 348 million journeys.

Looking at the bottom of the table:- Heathrow Express came last, with only a 5% increase, followed by:- c2c and London North Eastern Railway (both were up 6%).

Despite the positive increases that have been seen in passenger Journeys (417 million), the figures are still less than pre-Pandemic levels. There's been a 9.5% decrease when compared to the same quarter 4 years ago (461 million, October to December 2019).

Speaking on the data, Samantha White from West Somerset Railway said:- "It is fantastic to see these incredible rises of rail passenger journeys across Great Britain. Despite figures not yet matching Pre-Pandemic levels, it is really encouraging to see that the amount of people using trains continue to rise close to how they were before the Pandemic."

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