December 2025 Timetable Change - Confirmed changes only

[A S Leib]

Some lines such as Par – Newquay don't seem to be in RTT yet; are there any notable GWR changes? I thought the Oxford – Bristol services were originally stopped for the summer so the rolling stock could be used for Pembroke services. I can't see any sign of the former's return but I also can't remember if the trains are needed elsewhere (beyond fewer five-car London services).

 

[AJDesiro]

It appears that the WMT Euston-Crewe service has been altered to use P12 at Crewe for several services. However, it seems that a significant number of services still use P7 at Crewe. My understanding was that the 730/2s would be running Euston-Crewe completely from September, so it seems a shame if this is correct, since it either means 5 cars, or 350s, neither of which have enough space to support passenger loadings.

 

[Avenger20]

Lumo to Glasgow Queen Street services now confirmed as follows, provided info available on RTT is accurate:

Monday - Friday

1S95 1214 London King's Cross - Glasgow Queen Street 1746, forms 1E88 1818 Glasgow Queen Street - London King's Cross 2359.

1S97 1415 London King's Cross - Glasgow Queen Street 1941 which forms 5S97 1941 Glasgow Queen Street - Craigentinny 2103 ECS.

Saturday

NO SERVICE

Sunday

Empty from Craigentinny (presumably, no schedule in for that yet) then 1E82 0922 Glasgow Queen Street - London King's Cross 1442 which forms 1S97 1613 London King's Cross - Glasgow Queen Street 2130. ECS back to Craigentinny.

All passenger services call at Haymarket and Falkirk High.

Slightly disappointed at the service provision, especially in the Up direction. Hopefully it can be improved upon in future.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jul 2025 ==

Also, the Highlander portion of the Caledonian Sleeper now calls additionally at Birmingham International. Internal rumours had suggested that these additional calls were to be at the expensive of Crewe and/or Preston but according the the schedule all three remain as calling points.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not very useful without a morning out, evening back on a weekday, really. Not sure what the purpose of this is - a foot in the door?

 

[A S Leib]

Also, the Highlander portion of the Caledonian Sleeper now calls additionally at Birmingham International.

Without tickets (yet) available to buy to / from there yet on the Sleeper website.

 

[TrainzBK]

Interesting to see that TPE will now call at Manchester Victoria through the night instead of just passing through, they were previously told they weren’t allowed to stop so wonder what has changed. I can also see some Sheffield to Man Air services running through the night via Vic, Calder Valley and Wakefield. Apart from that though it seems TPE services are pretty much unchanged apart from some of the peak time Picc - Hudd services being extended to Leeds.

 

[A S Leib]

Which changes to TOCs serving stations will there be in December apart from Lumo starting to serve Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk High and Edinburgh Haymarket, Caledonian Sleeper adding Birmingham International, and Willenhall, Darlaston (West Midlands Railway) and Northumberland Park, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington (Northern) opening at some point?

 

[The exile]

Which changes to TOCs serving stations will there be in December apart from Lumo starting to serve Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk High and Edinburgh Haymarket, Caledonian Sleeper adding Birmingham International, and Willenhall, Darlaston (West Midlands Railway) and Northumberland Park, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington (Northern) opening at some point?

Don’t the 3 Camp Hill stations come on stream as well - their services are in RTT.

 

[The Planner]

Which changes to TOCs serving stations will there be in December apart from Lumo starting to serve Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk High and Edinburgh Haymarket, Caledonian Sleeper adding Birmingham International, and Willenhall, Darlaston (West Midlands Railway) and Northumberland Park, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington (Northern) opening at some point?

I very much doubt you will see Willenhall and Darlaston until May 26.

 

[ainsworth74]

Not very useful without a morning out, evening back on a weekday, really. Not sure what the purpose of this is - a foot in the door?

They asked for more but this is what they were granted by the ORR.


However I reckon discussion of Lumo's new services more properly sit in the dedicated ECML December 2025 timetable thread

 

[Class 466]

some of the peak time Picc - Hudd services being extended to Leeds.

This starts in September this year to accommodate the ongoing work at Huddersfield, although the services starting back from Scarborough/Hull is new. Brigg Line training paths are in for TPE from December

 

[MikeWM]

Network Rail Rules of the Route issue. This is the same every year and has been the case for many years.

It seems that there is no push to ever change such things. If NR can cope with the route being open at that time on a Sunday morning in the summer - when the fens often have the most issues (see the current issues on the Kings Lynn line) then I don't see why they can't all year around, when this would be highly benefical to passengers.

Currently you can get to Leeds from Ely at 1122, or Newcastle at 1222, on a Sunday morning when this service runs. Without it those times are 1323 and 1433, which is a massive difference if you're hoping to do some shopping or tourist attractions or similar before everything closes down until Monday. In the December timetable the connections are better at PBO so Newcastle can be reached by 1400 (no change for Leeds), but that's still quite late.

It's possible when we see the GN timetable that the promised earlier start for KGX services will allow for earlier opportunities via Stevenage, I suppose. Let's see once everything is published.

 

[The Planner]

It seems that there is no push to ever change such things. If NR can cope with the route being open at that time on a Sunday morning in the summer - when the fens often have the most issues (see the current issues on the Kings Lynn line) then I don't see why they can't all year around, when this would be highly benefical to passengers.

Currently you can get to Leeds from Ely at 1122, or Newcastle at 1222, on a Sunday morning when this service runs. Without it those times are 1323 and 1433, which is a massive difference if you're hoping to do some shopping or tourist attractions or similar before everything closes down until Monday. In the December timetable the connections are better at PBO so Newcastle can be reached by 1400 (no change for Leeds), but that's still quite late.

It's possible when we see the GN timetable that the promised earlier start for KGX services will allow for earlier opportunities via Stevenage, I suppose. Let's see once everything is published.

That assumes NR are only doing the same maintenance all the time and not extra to provide some resilience for when they cannot get access in the summer.

 

[MikeWM]

That assumes NR are only doing the same maintenance all the time and not extra to provide some resilience for when they cannot get access in the summer.

Possibly so, but they have the line from before 2300 on Saturday night, it feels likely that whatever they're doing that takes 12 hours outside the summer months could be done in 10 (as it has to be on other lines that have shorter overnight closures, eg. the Kings Lynn line or the Norwich line), and then this very useful service could run all year around. I suppose it is possible they're making efficient and full use of that 12 hours every weekend, but to be perfectly honest I really don't expect that they are.

 

[Magdalia]

Possibly so, but they have the line from before 2300 on Saturday night, it feels likely that whatever they're doing that takes 12 hours outside the summer months could be done in 10 (as it has to be on other lines that have shorter overnight closures, eg. the Kings Lynn line or the Norwich line), and then this very useful service could run all year around. I suppose it is possible they're making efficient and full use of that 12 hours every weekend, but to be perfectly honest I really don't expect that they are.

There is a huge difference between the Peterborough route and the Kings Lynn/Norwich routes, which is night time freight.

Network Rail can get access for engineering nearly every night on the Kings Lynn/Norwich routes, and on the Kings Lynn route they get a Monday-Thursday early close every 6th week. The freight traffic means that's not possible on the Peterborough route, where they only have Saturday night.

 

[The Planner]

Possibly so, but they have the line from before 2300 on Saturday night, it feels likely that whatever they're doing that takes 12 hours outside the summer months could be done in 10 (as it has to be on other lines that have shorter overnight closures, eg. the Kings Lynn line or the Norwich line), and then this very useful service could run all year around. I suppose it is possible they're making efficient and full use of that 12 hours every weekend, but to be perfectly honest I really don't expect that they are.

They don't get 12 hours on tbe tools though in a possession, all possessions are the same, you may get 10 hours in a section 4 but that isn't the reality. Its much less.

 

[MikeWM]

There is a huge difference between the Peterborough route and the Kings Lynn/Norwich routes, which is night time freight.

It's a fair point - given I can often hear it from my house, I really ought to have remembered that

--

They don't get 12 hours on tbe tools though in a possession, all possessions are the same, you may get 10 hours in a section 4 but that isn't the reality. Its much less.

Yes, which is why whole weekends are more efficient than a succession of short possessions, and a week-long block is more efficient than a set of weekends. I do get that.

I still think it is very disappointing this service can't run all year round given how useful it is, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. But as I said above, maybe an earlier GN service will help, albeit at the cost of going far out of the way. If we get the Sunday service that was put forward in the draft timetable, you could get to Stevenage (changing at Cambridge) in time to catch the 0955 to Newcastle, for example, which would be a big improvement on today. If that turns out to be the only solution, it would be useful if regular tickets from Ely to points north/west of PBO allowed travelling via Stevenage at such times, but I guess that won't happen either.

 

[bigmanaiq]

Camp Hill line passenger services have started appearing on RTT from December 14th onwards

 

[dk1]

Sundays on the Norwich to Stansted Airport route now represent more of a Saturday timetable albeit with a later start up. Standardisation of xx:27(ish) departures up road and xx:46 down.

Its a shame EMR have still not reinstated the 12:51 ex-Liverpool beyond Nottingham (Mon-Sat) and 18:55 return. This leaves a two hour gap on what was always a well used service eastbound until 2020.

 

[Kite159]

..

Sundays on the Norwich to Stansted Airport route now represent more of a Saturday timetable albeit with a later start up. Standardisation of xx:27(ish) departures up road and xx:46 down.

Its a shame EMR have still not reinstated the 12:51 ex-Liverpool beyond Nottingham (Mon-Sat) and 18:55 return. This leaves a two hour gap on what was always a well used service eastbound until 2020.

And I suspect it causes extra crowding on the Skegness service which departs in the hour that the EMR to Norwich doesn't run (for Grantham passengers to head to London).

 

[dk1]

..

And I suspect it causes extra crowding on the Skegness service which departs in the hour that the EMR to Norwich doesn't run (for Grantham passengers to head to London).

Yes I’m sure that could be the case. Seems so odd that it’s still not back on such a busy long distance route.

 

[InOban]

They don't get 12 hours on tbe tools though in a possession, all possessions are the same, you may get 10 hours in a section 4 but that isn't the reality. Its much less.

I read somewhere that in Scotland they have a new system from Luminate, I think which cuts the time needed to set up a possession to a few. minutes

 

[wls1]

SE, GWR and LO are up

 

[The Planner]

I read somewhere that in Scotland they have a new system from Luminate, I think which cuts the time needed to set up a possession to a few. minutes

Its never going to be that quick, especially if you need an OLE isolation.

 

[Liverpool 507]

SE, GWR and LO are up

Merseyrail up as well

 

[weeklycommuter]

I very much doubt you will see Willenhall and Darlaston until May 26.

Currently showing in Real Time Trains as calls for the 0610 Shrewsbury to Birmingham New Street and the 2227 Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton services and as service stop unadvertised in the hourly stopping trains between Shrewsbury and Birmingham New Street on Monday 15 December 2025. The two stations are expected to open in 2026 so I assume this is in preparation for calls at these stations being included in the timetable when they open.

 

[PGAT]

I spot a few new services on the Maidstone East line. 0844 and 1744 from there to Charing Cross, and 0757 and 1859 towards Maidstone East with the latter continuing to Ashford. Also one extra Victoria service in each direction. No other changes other than retiming on a few routes to achieve more even intervals.

 

[Bald Rick]

It's a shame it loses somewhat of it's simplistic clockface timetable with departures from SSD showing as XX:11/XX:28/XX:43/XX:58

That is clockface!

Slightly disappointed at the service provision, especially in the Up direction. Hopefully it can be improved upon in future.

Very unlikely. See the ORR letter.

It seems that there is no push to ever change such things.

There is.

I still think it is very disappointing this service can't run all year round given how useful it is, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

Out of interest, when it does run how many people use it?

I read somewhere that in Scotland they have a new system from Luminate, I think which cuts the time needed to set up a possession to a few. minutes

That’s right, I’ve seen it in action personally. However it only works on certain types of signalling control systems (ie provided by Luminate!), and where isolations are required that still takes time.

However it will be rolled out elsewhere. The principal benefit is more time to do maintenance efficiently, which as the railway comes back together will be seen as a significant cost efficiency at the expense of very little revenue.

 

[dodecahedron67]

I can also see some Sheffield to Man Air services running through the night via Vic, Calder Valley and Wakefield.

Staffing stop st Wakefield so crew change there from Manchester/York (for Calder) to Sheffield crew (for Moorthorpe)

 

[A S Leib]

SE, GWR and LO are up

Merseyrail up as well

That leaves Avanti, Chiltern, c2c, CrossCountry, Elizabeth Line, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Northern, ScotRail, Southern, SWR, Thameslink, TfW Rail, and some lines on other TOCs (at the very least, Par – Newquay).