December 2026 Timetable Change

[43055]

Why is this route so unreliable?

Seems a shame to reduce the variety of destinations on offer to Halifax, Bradford and Hull.

Looking at it is seems to have minimum time at Halifax, Bradford and Leeds and 15 mins at Hull on a 4 hour cycle.

 

[dodecahedron67]

All the problems with it are fitting around Micklefield Jn with TPE.

Heading west, if the 1Pxx Scarborough - Victoria service is a few mins late, the Hull to Halifax service gets held for it. This means it arrives at Halifax late and has minimum turn around time, so often leaves late

Heading east, if the 9Exx TPE is a few min late at Leeds, the Halifax - Hull is held for it. This in turn delays the 1Sxx Cross Country behind it, and sometimes the 1Pxx TPE to Teeside as well. If the 2Kxx ends up more than 5 late as a result, chances are it gets put behind the Doncaster to Hull all stops service, which then means getting to Hull after it is due to leave back to Halifax.

Cutting at Leeds basically gives 30 min recovery time there and also means that delays aren’t imported to the clockface 15 min Leeds - Halifax service

 

[GoneSouth]

All the problems with it are fitting around Micklefield Jn with TPE.

Heading west, if the 1Pxx Scarborough - Victoria service is a few mins late, the Hull to Halifax service gets held for it. This means it arrives at Halifax late and has minimum turn around time, so often leaves late

Heading east, if the 9Exx TPE is a few min late at Leeds, the Halifax - Hull is held for it. This in turn delays the 1Sxx Cross Country behind it, and sometimes the 1Pxx TPE to Teeside as well. If the 2Kxx ends up more than 5 late as a result, chances are it gets put behind the Doncaster to Hull all stops service, which then means getting to Hull after it is due to leave back to Halifax.

Cutting at Leeds basically gives 30 min recovery time there and also means that delays aren’t imported to the clockface 15 min Leeds - Halifax service

Ah I see, quite congested then really. Is there enough space at Leeds to hold an empty train for 30 minutes? Although it maybe OK as I seem to remember there are 2 east facing bay platforms, or at least there was before the rebuild in 2000. Is that still the case

Is the Halifax service a clockface timetable from Leeds? It certainly didn’t seem to be when heading in the other direction fairly recently. I was travelling Manchester to Leeds and we seemed catch one up near Bradford.

 

[MatthewE707]

Ah I see, quite congested then really. Is there enough space at Leeds to hold an empty train for 30 minutes? Although it maybe OK as I seem to remember there are 2 east facing bay platforms, or at least there was before the rebuild in 2000. Is that still the case

Yes, there are still two bay platforms, of which platform 7 is used for the local York services, but platform 14 is empty except for a couple of trains at peak times, so they'll presumably use that

 

[route101]

Whilst I appreciate pax from Glasgow/Motherwell may well benefit from direct trains towards the XC network, I think it would be better use of their 220/221s to only run as far north as Edinburgh and potentially be able to double up another service or two.

Always thought extending the Newcastle to Edinburgh TPE services to Glasgow would make sense. There is a quite a big flow from Motherwell to Edinburgh.

 

[Avenger20]

Always thought extending the Newcastle to Edinburgh TPE services to Glasgow would make sense. There is a quite a big flow from Motherwell to Edinburgh.

Considering that the Scottish crew are all Glasgow based and currently have to either pass through on Scotrail services or use taxis before/after service, it makes even more sense.

 

[Calderdale Ian]

Looking at it is seems to have minimum time at Halifax, Bradford and Leeds and 15 mins at Hull on a 4 hour cycle.

It will also help with timekeeping on the Chester to Leeds service which if running 7 or so minutes late through the Calder Valley can often be stuffed outside Halifax if the Hull unit is let out of the turnback siding early . My record is waiting 8 minutes outside Halifax waiting for the platform to become free . The Halifax to Hull service is timed through the eye of a needle , particularly Leeds to Micklefield and from Gilberdyke with little wiggle room at the bookends of the route . Running Leeds / Hull is a much better idea and should improve reliability .

 

[MichaelTrains]

It will also help with timekeeping on the Chester to Leeds service which if running 7 or so minutes late through the Calder Valley can often be stuffed outside Halifax if the Hull unit is let out of the turnback siding early . My record is waiting 8 minutes outside Halifax waiting for the platform to become free . The Halifax to Hull service is timed through the eye of a needle , particularly Leeds to Micklefield and from Gilberdyke with little wiggle room at the bookends of the route . Running Leeds / Hull is a much better idea and should improve reliability .

No it isn’t a good idea. It is a disgraceful idea.

Changes add time, uncertainty, platform walking, and risk of missed connections—especially for passengers with luggage, mobility needs, children, or the highly documented peak-hour Leeds platform crowding.

Even if overall reliability figures improve by splitting the service (I still have my doubts), the practical journey quality for many users declines.

Journeys between Bradford Interchange and Hull, while not enormous in absolute terms, have increased substantially in recent years (from low thousands to several thousand annually in origin-destination matrices).

This indicates rising demand for the through link rather than a dead service to Leeds which removes the East–West Yorkshire links.

 

[FGW_Lad]

Looks like the GWR London to Didcot Parkway services will cross over from the main lines after Slough from December which means they will stop at Platform 2. Is this possibly due to the upcoming Dolphin Junction works?

 

[Johnny Lewis]

Looks like the GWR London to Didcot Parkway services will cross over from the main lines after Slough from December which means they will stop at Platform 2. Is this possibly due to the upcoming Dolphin Junction works?

This kicks in at the beginning of October 2026, is scheduled to finish on Sunday 3 January 2027, and is, indeed, due to the Dolphin Junction replacement.
Annoyingly, it causes lots of Class 1s to be retimed by up to 3 minutes too, (as you will see if you look in the current GWR timetable PDFs), owing to them needing to be flexed around the Class 2s that will stay on the Main lines for a bit longer.
Platforms 2 & 3 at Slough will be used for some of the Paddington - Didcot stoppers to call there, as they will need to cross between Main lines and Relief lines at either Slough West or Maidenhead East. Those platforms are currently gated off and only a tiny number of Class 1s actually call at Slough these days.

 

[Alfie1014]

There don’t seem to be many changes in GA land except one extra peak service in each direction on the GEML. A new 07:09 SX Colchester to Liverpool Street which results in some consequential changes to other services, the most noticeable is the 06:48 SX Clacton to Liverpool Street which is retimed to depart at 06:55 and only calls at Chelmsford and Stratford south of Colchester, presumably to provide relief to the 06:30 from Norwich. In the evening a new 16:51 SX Liverpool Street to Colchester filling the gap between the 16:42 and 17:02 departures, though even with this being overtaken at Witham by the 17:00 Norwich it still will provide a connection at Colchester into the 17:56 to Walton (currently provided by the 16:42 ex Liv St). This extra morning service makes a total of 20 Main and Southend arrivals in to Liverpool Street in the high peak hour (08:00-08:59) which is only 1 less than pre COVID.

 

[mangyiscute]

This kicks in at the beginning of October 2026, is scheduled to finish on Sunday 3 January 2027, and is, indeed, due to the Dolphin Junction replacement.
Annoyingly, it causes lots of Class 1s to be retimed by up to 3 minutes too, (as you will see if you look in the current GWR timetable PDFs), owing to them needing to be flexed around the Class 2s that will stay on the Main lines for a bit longer.
Platforms 2 & 3 at Slough will be used for some of the Paddington - Didcot stoppers to call there, as they will need to cross between Main lines and Relief lines at either Slough West or Maidenhead East. Those platforms are currently gated off and only a tiny number of Class 1s actually call at Slough these days.

To clarify, this is because dolphin junction will be out of action for those 3 months. Once this is done, the speed of trains over the junction will increase massively which will cause fewer delays in the future.

 

[thealexweb]

Always thought extending the Newcastle to Edinburgh TPE services to Glasgow would make sense. There is a quite a big flow from Motherwell to Edinburgh.

That was a core part of First bid for the now gone franchise. So frustrating to see the route continuing to operate separately.

 

[evergreenadam]

There don’t seem to be many changes in GA land except one extra peak service in each direction on the GEML. A new 07:09 SX Colchester to Liverpool Street which results in some consequential changes to other services, the most noticeable is the 06:48 SX Clacton to Liverpool Street which is retimed to depart at 06:55 and only calls at Chelmsford and Stratford south of Colchester, presumably to provide relief to the 06:30 from Norwich. In the evening a new 16:51 SX Liverpool Street to Colchester filling the gap between the 16:42 and 17:02 departures, though even with this being overtaken at Witham by the 17:00 Norwich it still will provide a connection at Colchester into the 17:56 to Walton (currently provided by the 16:42 ex Liv St). This extra morning service makes a total of 20 Main and Southend arrivals in to Liverpool Street in the high peak hour (08:00-08:59) which is only 1 less than pre COVID.

It’s good that they are adding more trains. TBH a morning peak service from Clacton should only really be stopping at those stations after Colchester, anything else is doing the job of a different service.

 

[dk1]

There don’t seem to be many changes in GA land except one extra peak service in each direction on the GEML. A new 07:09 SX Colchester to Liverpool Street which results in some consequential changes to other services, the most noticeable is the 06:48 SX Clacton to Liverpool Street which is retimed to depart at 06:55 and only calls at Chelmsford and Stratford south of Colchester, presumably to provide relief to the 06:30 from Norwich. In the evening a new 16:51 SX Liverpool Street to Colchester filling the gap between the 16:42 and 17:02 departures, though even with this being overtaken at Witham by the 17:00 Norwich it still will provide a connection at Colchester into the 17:56 to Walton (currently provided by the 16:42 ex Liv St). This extra morning service makes a total of 20 Main and Southend arrivals in to Liverpool Street in the high peak hour (08:00-08:59) which is only 1 less than pre COVID.

Good to hear and just goes to show that even with the additional seating capacity on the new train fleets that at least 3 days (with Monday picking up no end too) the GEML has recovered very well. There is still some distain that the 06:55 ex-Norwich which was fast from Manningtree never returned.

 

[London Trains]

Just an anecdotal observation regarding the upcoming changes to the Luton to Rainham service - when I used this service to travel through the core the other day (weekday off-peak), I was quite surprised to see that the service was absolutely rammed full when it arrived at St Pancras, and was again rammed full when it was leaving London Bridge.

 

[Mattplans]

Even Kentish Town starters bound for Orpington at the start of the (PM) peak have been very crowded in my experience. I don't know where all these people come from to be honest.

* Boarding at St Pancras

 

[GoneSouth]

Peak tourist season and school holidays so busier at off peak. Presumably peak airport season too and as they’re such a pain to drive to these days probably more people going by train. Presumably that should mean quieter peak times too, it certainly is for my train to work at the moment.

I don't know where all these people come from to be honest.

There are a number of people out there who’d be all too happy to tell you so please don’t ask them

 

[Bald Rick]

Just an anecdotal observation regarding the upcoming changes to the Luton to Rainham service - when I used this service to travel through the core the other day (weekday off-peak), I was quite surprised to see that the service was absolutely rammed full when it arrived at St Pancras, and was again rammed full when it was leaving London Bridge.

if the preceding fast service from Bedford was cancelled?? … then everyone from Luton to St Albans would be on this as the next service south.

 

[London Trains]

if the preceding fast service from Bedford was cancelled?? … then everyone from Luton to St Albans would be on this as the next service south.

There weren't any cancellations, I even double checked that on RTT before posting as it wouldn't make sense for me to post such an observation if the service was carrying multiple trainloads of passengers.

 

[sad1e]

Curiously Varamis seemed to have added more WCML paths. Appear to be old DBC postal paths to Warrington or Daventry.

Comeback for Varamis I wonder , Maybe with 325s ?
I doubt many of their 321s are still in good shape as they've been pan down in Wembley for quite a while now.