Robski
Member
- Joined
- 15 May 2016
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- 333
May 2026 timetables are beginning to appear. Avanti, London Overground, SWR, Southeastern and Greater Anglia timetables are up so far.
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May 2026 timetable
- Thread starter Robski
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moonarrow458
Member
Maidstone to Blackfriars services make a return on Southeastern with a morning service (1F91) at 06:52 from Maidstone East to Blackfriars arriving at 08:05.
In the evening the return service (1F97) departs Blackfriars at 17:44 arriving at Maidstone East at 18:55
In the evening the return service (1F97) departs Blackfriars at 17:44 arriving at Maidstone East at 18:55
How do you access them?
On the real time trains website by selecting a date after the timetable change.
Cross country is also up
Johnny Lewis
Member
Lumo West Coast are in.
Apparently they will be running trains between London Euston and Blackpool North!
Monday to Friday:
1A00 06.12 Blackpool North to London Euston
1P04 19.12 London Euston to Blackpool North
Saturday:
1A00 05.29 Blackpool North to London Euston
Sunday:
1P03 19.35 London Euston to Blackpool North
I wonder if they're genuine planned services?
Apparently they will be running trains between London Euston and Blackpool North!
Monday to Friday:
1A00 06.12 Blackpool North to London Euston
1P04 19.12 London Euston to Blackpool North
Saturday:
1A00 05.29 Blackpool North to London Euston
Sunday:
1P03 19.35 London Euston to Blackpool North
I wonder if they're genuine planned services?
Fat chance!
Johnny Lewis
Member
Transport for Wales are now there, with the finally introduced hourly service between Liverpool Lime Street and Llandudno - on Mondays to Saturdays only.
rmHawk765
Member
I am hoping GTR follows, apparently the 4tph off-peak on the GN inners out of Moorgate (for both branches) from May 2019 will be returning. They also (apparently) will not be terminating trains at Gordon Hill anymore, with the 2tph extra now extended to Hertford (4+2 arrangement). There have been rumours for a while but the only reliable source I can find is that it was mentioned in an Enfield Transport Users' Group meeting: https://enfieldtransportusergroup.blogspot.com/2025/12/minutes-of-etug-meeting-20th-november.html
Edit - a lot of the May times (literally all past a certain point) for these services are currently completely missing from RTT, I am guessing this is in progress. I am also hoping they make the Hertfords depart earlier again because Dec 2025 borked the cross-platform interchange with TL at FPK.
Edit - a lot of the May times (literally all past a certain point) for these services are currently completely missing from RTT, I am guessing this is in progress. I am also hoping they make the Hertfords depart earlier again because Dec 2025 borked the cross-platform interchange with TL at FPK.
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xotGD
Established Member
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2017
- Messages
- 7,806
That huge untapped demand from people wishing to leave Blackpool at stupid o'clock on a Saturday morning.
brad465
Veteran Member
There is now also an additional off-peak Ashford-Victoria service in the morning in each direction: the 09:25 VIC-AFK and 10:27 AFK-VIC, extending the 2tph period by another hour. There are also extra contra-peak MDE-CHX services leaving Maidstone at 16:44 and 18:44 (the 17:44 already exists), and a new 19:59 CHX-MDE that extends 2tph CHX-MDE running for longer. I'm guessing most of these will be extending existing diagrams, though the Blackfriars' services will probably require additional units; likely 377s if anymore are available from the latest cascade.
North Kent Summer Specials are also back again, with Saturday 23rd May being the first date and the same two diagrams as last year: 08:18 and 09:18 CST-RAM, with returns at 16:46 and 17:46. No Sunday diagram yet, but that didn't start till mid-July last year.
Farigiraf
Member
Birmingham International - Holyhead will be curtailed at Llandudno Junction, with the Manchester Airport running to Holyhead in its place - picking up the Conwy, Llanfairfechan, Penmaenmawr calls as well as interestingly Llanfairpwll (plus Bangor and Holyhead, of course).
Abergele & Pensarn calls switch over to the Liverpool services, rather than keeping the Manchester Airport service call as well, which would've resulted in 2tph. A shame, but not that unexpected.
The halts in Anglesey will be primarily served by the 2-hourly Cardiff Central-Holyhead with a few peak hour calls by the Manchester Airport-Holyhead. Considerable increase during peak hours, with a slight net gain off-peak as well, though passengers used to taking the 11:30 eastbound service will have to travel an hour earlier or later, which may inconvenience some people.
Major winners are:
- Rhyl, Prestatyn, Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay which gain an extra 1tph (3tph + Avanti in total, almost turn-up-and-go along the busiest part of the North Wales Coast)
- Llanfairpwll, which goes from a 2-hourly service with a few extras to 1.5tph. Almost double the frequency - not sure why this was done but it'll certainly make the lives easier of tourists wishing to visit the 'Welsh town with the long name'.
Will be interesting to see how the connections will work following the Conwy Valley recast in Dec 2026. The busiest long-distance flows from Betws-y-Coed are from the London direction, but split ticketing may distort these figures. I wouldn't be surprised if the Llandudno-Blaenau Ffestiniog was timed around the Avanti service rather than any of the TFW services.
These changes, plus the Conwy Valley Recast, extra Wrexham-Chester-Crewe services and the prospective Network North(-east) Wales show signs of serious improvement in North Wales. Certainly appropriate given how many improvements there have been in South Wales.
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Southeastern are adding a few services on all days from the looks of it. Ignoring any calling pattern/extension changes, I think the new trains are:
Sundays
Saturdays
Wednesday (would guess similar all week)
The Sunday diagram is published, starts 19th July this year until August 30th. Also when 1E95 starts running during the week.
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Peterthegreat
Established Member
Most of the Cross Country Reading to Newcastle/York services seem to have been reinstated.
brad465
Veteran Member
Sounds like they're finally getting 2tph HS1 via Medway back most of Saturday (though still a void in the lunchtime/early afternoon period). Judging by the timings, I suspect the Faversham splitters on Saturdays are additional summer specials as well, possibly also the Sunday splitters (besides the early morning up trains and evening down trains), so won't run from September.
The Gillingham-Blackfriars' services and Maidstone-Blackfriars seem to be a revival of the terminus for peak Southeastern mainline connections. Will be interesting to see what stock does them. At a guess I can see the Maidstone one being 377 and the Gillingham/Rochester one being Networker; I suspect there are not enough 377s to do both (unless both are 4-car only), and the Maidstone one is almost exclusively 377, while Networkers still have a presence on some VIC-GLM services and at Gillingham depot
A complete shock them serving Blackpool north but makes complete sense considering those trains was starting/terminating at Preston anyway.
Looking closer they don't actually split, it's two separate trains that connect at Faversham. You are right that they are seasonal, they last until October and then revert back. The high speed additions look to run throughout the period.
Both the Blackfriars trains are slower than the London Bridge trains so might not be that popular. Convenient for Bromley South to Blackfriars though, 14 minutes faster than the Luton trains running about the same time.
brad465
Veteran Member
May also be convenient for Barming, East Malling, St Mary Cray, Meopham and Longfield, as none of these have direct services to London Bridge. In any case Elephant & Castle is an extra link for many of the stations east of Swanley on both routes, and as you allude to, faster links for those that already have a Thameslink service.
Mattplans
Member
Railchecker.app displays some services beyond the rtt restriction (showing SE seasonals)
railchecker.app
Nothing to see here though.
1E93 London Cannon Street to Ramsgate | RailChecker Web
Check train times, formations, crowding, planning, disruption and more on RailChecker.
Nothing to see here though.
YorkshireBear
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jul 2010
- Messages
- 9,661
Torn on this one as surely it will lead to less double sets on the Edinburgh-Plymouths.
dk1
Veteran Member
Of interest on GA regional services are the return of the 08:04 & 18:02 (SX) Norwich-Great Yarmouth and return. Both withdrawn during the pandemic. Also an interesting evening service at 21:54 Norwich-Beccles obviously via Lowestoft returning at 23:00. The last train to Lowestoft departs Norwich Monday-Saturday slightly later at 22:51.
The Norwich-Cambridge route sees additional services each day including an extra service as far as Ely at 21:40 thus providing a standard hourly service across the Breckland line right up until 22:40.
Earlier & later trains operate on the Bittern line to Sheringham on Sundays providing 15 services in each direction which must be the best ever on that route.
The Norwich-Cambridge route sees additional services each day including an extra service as far as Ely at 21:40 thus providing a standard hourly service across the Breckland line right up until 22:40.
Earlier & later trains operate on the Bittern line to Sheringham on Sundays providing 15 services in each direction which must be the best ever on that route.
Why were they removed? Was it overcrowding prevention?
The suggestion is that they were a measure to improve reliability. The usual "changes by committee" stuff that has more side effects than have been considered.
I'm not sure the changes won't be reintroduced; generally future timetables start off using a copy of an earlier version of the timetable (i.e. December 2025 without the modifications made nearer to "go-live").
Avanti have abandoned kirkham and wesham and poulton apart from one service in one direction only on a Sunday. Despite a 5 car running on the 0535 from Blackpool since last timetable change. And a 5 car on the evening since the timetable change in December. At least these stations will have a direct London service back.
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Overnight services have appeared on the North Downs Line on Friday night/Saturday morning, calling at Wokingham, Blackwater, North Camp, Guildford, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate and Redhill.
0228 Reading - Gatwick, arriving 0350
0330 Reading - Gatwick, arriving 0455
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0400 Gatwick - Reading, arriving 0518
Not sure about the other return working.
0228 Reading - Gatwick, arriving 0350
0330 Reading - Gatwick, arriving 0455
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0400 Gatwick - Reading, arriving 0518
Not sure about the other return working.
Charlie978
Member
Looks to me like the weekend services are glorified positioning moves to get the unit to/from Blackpool for the weekday services.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Looking at the XC services, it appears that pretty much all of the Newcastle - Reading services are in to be hourly. Is this actually going to happen or will these be cancelled as they are just placeholders for the path?
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