December 2026 Timetable Change

voyagerdude220 · 19 Jun 2026

I think it's about time that Avanti reintroduce a direct train from Birmingham New Street to Preston at 21:07. I feel having the last train on this route at 19:07 is ridiculously early.

Also it would potentially speed up 1P07 20:30 London Euston to Preston, which used to arrive Preston 22:53 but currently gets there at 23:01, owing to it having to stop at Stafford which it didn't when the 21:07 ran from Birmingham to Preston.

Similarly I think Avanti should reintroduce the 06:17 from Preston. At the moment this train starts from Crewe, with pax having to get the 06:00 and change at Crewe.

RailUK Forums

Chris172 · 19 Jun 2026

43074 said:
The main benefit of extending the Crewe services on Sundays is that Willenhall and Darlaston gain a Sunday service, as well as providing 2tph at Penkridge to align with weekdays and Saturdays.

The poor spacing of southbound calls at Willenhall and Darlaston on weekdays should also be sorted from May 2027...

Are 350s cleared to call at Willenhall and Darlaston? Is UDS authorised due to 8 car? I know the 730s aren't authorised at the moment.

MerlinRail 804 · 19 Jun 2026

Chiltern now on RTT. There’s an increase in peak services, as well as a 0931 Marylebone - Stratford, return working leaving at 1432, and a 0935 Marylebone - Bicester Village, returning at 1032.

I’ve also tried to decipher the 68/Mk5 diagrams. These diagrams contain at least one service listed as a 68. There’s probably some others that are 68s but listed as 168s, such as in the morning peak, but these go off to the depot so it’s impossible to tell. I’ve deciphered nine diagrams, so there’s probably another one lurking somewhere. Here’s what I’ve been able to work out:

5L15 0607 Stourbridge Depot - Leamington
1H15 0714 Leamington - Marylebone
1R17 0902 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H41 1145 Moor Street - Marylebone
1R37 1402 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H66 1645 Moor Street - Marylebone
5E58 1902 Marylebone - Wembley LMD

5U07 0651 Wembley LMD - Banbury
1H17 0759 Banbury - Marylebone
1G19 0939 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H43 1211 Snow Hill - Marylebone
1R41 1502 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H72 1745 Moor Street - Marylebone
1J65 2102 Marylebone - Stourbridge
5J65 0005 Stourbridge - Stourbridge Depot

5J18 0618 Stourbridge Depot - Stourbridge
1H18 0644 Stourbridge - Marylebone
1R21 1002 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H45 1245 Moor Street - Marylebone
1G43 1536 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H74 1811 Snow Hill - Marylebone
5E64 2048 Marylebone - Wembley LMD

5J16 0548 Stourbridge Depot - Stourbridge
1H16 0614 Stourbridge - Marylebone
5O24 0913 Marylebone - Marylebone
1R25 1102 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H48 1344 Moor Street - Marylebone
1G51 1733 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H81 2011 Snow Hill - Marylebone
1U77 0005 Marylebone - Banbury
5U77 0136 Banbury - Banbury Depot

5O27 1039 Wembley LMD - Marylebone
1G27 1136 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H51 1411 Snow Hill - Marylebone
1J49 1703 Marylebone - Stourbridge
5J49 1945 Stourbridge - Stourbridge Depot

5U02 0501 Banbury Depot - Banbury
1H02 0517 Banbury - Marylebone
1R10 0707 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H30 0945 Moor Street - Marylebone
1R29 1202 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H53 1445 Moor Street - Marylebone
1U49 1711 Marylebone - Banbury
5J50 1834 Banbury - Stourbridge Depot

1H08 0545 Moor Street - Marylebone
1R13 0803 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H33 1045 Moor Street - Marylebone
1R33 1302 Marylebone - Moor Street
1H62 1545 Moor Street - Marylebone
1U54 1814 Marylebone - Banbury
5U54 1931 Banbury - Banbury Depot

5P05 0613 Wembley LMD - Risborough
1H09 0713 Risborough - Marylebone
1G15 0834 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H40 1111 Snow Hill - Marylebone
1G36 1436 Marylebone - Snow Hill
1H68 1711 Snow Hill - Marylebone
5E62 2013 Marylebone - Wembley LMD

5H64 1804 Wembley LMD - Marylebone
1U56 1841 Marylebone - Banbury
5H77 2004 Banbury - Marylebone
5E67 2152 Marylebone - Wembley LMD

Starmill · 19 Jun 2026

voyagerdude220 said:
I think it's about time that Avanti reintroduce a direct train from Birmingham New Street to Preston at 21:07. I feel having the last train on this route at 19:07 is ridiculously early.

To save seven minutes? Really?

voyagerdude220 said:
Also it would potentially speed up 1P07 20:30 London Euston to Preston, which used to arrive Preston 22:53 but currently gets there at 23:01, owing to it having to stop at Stafford which it didn't when the 21:07 ran from Birmingham to Preston.

So instead of running one very lightly loaded train from Crewe to Preston, you suggest two even lighter loaded ones less than ten minutes apart?

voyagerdude220 · 19 Jun 2026

Starmill said:
To save seven minutes? Really?

So instead of running one very lightly loaded train from Crewe to Preston, you suggest two even lighter loaded ones less than ten minutes apart?

No. My point was how early the last direct train from Birmingham to Preston is at the moment and I mentioned the time saving to the other train as a positive move if Avanti reverted back to having the 21:07 from Birmingham running to Preston.

Starmill · 19 Jun 2026

voyagerdude220 said:
No. My point was how early the last direct train from Birmingham to Preston is at the moment and I mentioned the time saving to the other train as a positive move if Avanti reverted back to having the 21:07 from Birmingham running to Preston.

The inconvenience of the change of trains is very minor given it barely impacts on journey time. The time saving would be trivial for a train which has a very low load factor.

NorthKent1989 · 19 Jun 2026

43074 said:
Interestingly, Luton to Rainham services are curtailed to Kentish Town during off peak SX and Saturdays, clockwise Sutton loop services are extended to Luton in their place

Trains at Luton on 16/12/2026 | Rail Record

Live Train Times for Luton - Search passenger and freight services at Luton

live.rail-record.co.uk

Curtailing it to Kentish Town is interesting, for me the Medway Thameslink service is about 4-5 timetable changes away from becoming a SE service again.

cav1975 · 19 Jun 2026

NorthKent1989 said:
Curtailing it to Kentish Town is interesting, for me the Medway Thameslink service is about 4-5 timetable changes away from becoming a SE service again.

A good opportunity to use the dual voltage 375s?

lrbvoyager · 19 Jun 2026

voyagerdude220 said:
No. My point was how early the last direct train from Birmingham to Preston is at the moment and I mentioned the time saving to the other train as a positive move if Avanti reverted back to having the 21:07 from Birmingham running to Preston.

There’s no point sending it just to Preston?? The demand for Birmingham-Preston will not be very large at all. If you were to add later services from Birmingham to the north then I would send more to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

LittleRedTrain · 19 Jun 2026

MerlinRail 804 said:
Chiltern now on RTT. There’s an increase in peak services, as well as a 0931 Marylebone - Stratford, return working leaving at 1432, and a 0935 Marylebone - Bicester Village, returning at 1032.

Interesting that there seems to be two semi-fast services leaving Leamington 0714/0720 and basically following each other all the way to Marylebone.
Similarly 0759 and 0807 from Banbury.

Does seem unfortunate that some journey times have been extended, e.g:

Current 0809 from Banbury takes 1h04 to Marylebone with Bicester and High Wycombe stops

Replacement 0808 from Banbury will take 1h08 with Bicester and High Wycombe stops.
New 0759 from Banbury will take 1h13 with Bicester and Haddenham stops.

Still will be nice to be guaranteed a seat on the latter, even if it does mean getting up 10mins earlier!

I do miss the sub-1hr non-stop Marylebone-Banbury services!

moonarrow458 · 19 Jun 2026

Phillipimo said:
SWR now visible in RTT. Not much has changed but I have noticed this.

17:20 no longer extends to Southampton, terminates Basingstoke.
17:45 additional to Southampton first stop Farnborough.
17:45 to Portsmouth & Southsea retimed to 17:50 and goes via Woking vice Cobham.
17:50 to Basingstoke retimed to 17:47

Net result is one extra fast peak departure from Waterloo and a shorter journey time for the semi fast Southampton.

SWR have also extended the Surbiton peak buster 2J92 to start back in service from Hampton Court at 07:44. The train will also gain a call at Berrylands as well

800002 · 19 Jun 2026

LittleRedTrain said:
Does seem unfortunate that some journey times have been extended, e.g:

It may seem odd, but a remedy to the overcrowding issues experienced is to provide more seats.
This is either via additional carriages / units present on the existing services or by adding new services.

Since chiltern went and downsized their capacity into the form of locohauled Mk5a units with 5 carriages, fixed formation, the 1st option isnt really possible to relieve the crowding on existing services which are nearly as long as they could be to begin with.

When more services are added, it's likely that gaps are squeezed and the service pattern rejigged.
That may be the unintended consequence of being able to have a more comfortable journey - a slightly longer one.
The mk5a service may also need additional dwell time to accommodate the different embarking/ disembarking profile (vs the traditional units with doors at thirds along each carriage).

Peter0124 · 19 Jun 2026

lrbvoyager said:
There’s no point sending it just to Preston?? The demand for Birmingham-Preston will not be very large at all. If you were to add later services from Birmingham to the north then I would send more to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Extend just 1P07 to Glasgow and you'd have both a later train from London, and a later train from Birmingham via the seven minute interchange from Stafford (admittedly that is pretty tight).

ponponjo · 19 Jun 2026

Noticed there's a bizarre schedule that's appeared in RTT, running SSuX for Southeastern from the December TT change.

1B92 2016 Hastings to London Charing Cross
calls at
St Leonard Warrior Sq
Battle
Tunbridge Wells
High Brooms
Tonbridge
(non-stop via Bat & Ball and Up Chatham Loop)
London Bridge
London Waterloo East

devon_belle · 19 Jun 2026

Has anyone noticed any changes to Southern? Sorry if they've been posted, I did try a search.

Mattplans · 19 Jun 2026

ponponjo said:
Noticed there's a bizarre schedule that's appeared in RTT, running SSuX for Southeastern from the December TT change.

1B92 2016 Hastings to London Charing Cross
calls at
St Leonard Warrior Sq
Battle
Tunbridge Wells
High Brooms
Tonbridge
(non-stop via Bat & Ball and Up Chatham Loop)
London Bridge
London Waterloo East

Good catch - there's also a 1B94 London Charing Cross to Hastings return journey which looks like it will be formed of the same train. But it stops at Sevenoaks.

It might be for route retention. There are already quite a handful of services running around on the Kent network around midday doing odd routes for route retention/learning.

bramling · 19 Jun 2026

ponponjo said:
Noticed there's a bizarre schedule that's appeared in RTT, running SSuX for Southeastern from the December TT change.

1B92 2016 Hastings to London Charing Cross
calls at
St Leonard Warrior Sq
Battle
Tunbridge Wells
High Brooms
Tonbridge
(non-stop via Bat & Ball and Up Chatham Loop)
London Bridge
London Waterloo East

This is actually potentially a quite useful service. Gives a quick evening return to London at a time when the service from Hastings has always tended to be painfully slow, and useful for people working night shifts in London as well. Good to see the Hastings line is for one not being treated as a backwater branch line.

swr444 · 19 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
SWR have also extended the Surbiton peak buster 2J92 to start back in service from Hampton Court at 07:44. The train will also gain a call at Berrylands as well

1720 Woking stopper is extended to Guildford and the 1732 to Guildford now goes to the bay at Woking

moonarrow458 · 19 Jun 2026

MerlinRail 804 said:
Chiltern now on RTT. There’s an increase in peak services, as well as a 0931 Marylebone - Stratford, return working leaving at 1432, and a 0935 Marylebone - Bicester Village, returning at 1032.

There's also a new 05:40 Banbury to Oxford service that runs non-stop, giving a earlier first train by 50 minutes on that route. However it has so much pathing time that it could serve all the village stations and still arrive at Oxford at the same time.

Then there is a rather bizzare occurence in the morning peak on the Aylesbury to Risborough line.
2P16 - 07:45 Aylesbury to Princes Risborough remains unchanged connecting into nothing at Risborough (or rather a 22 minute wait for 1Y17 ex Oxford at 08:24).

But the stock for the new 07:55 Princes Risborough to Marylebone service which replaces 1H12 at 07:46, comes ECS from Aylesbury at 07:37 instead of Wembley.

So you have the rather bizzare result of a train from Aylesbury running ECS to Risborough at 07:37, which could form a useful through direct service to Wycombe and London, and then at 07:45 you have the shuttle to Risborough that doesn't connect well into anything towards Wycombe and London.

Oh and then there's the 2 extra (total = 3) through trains from Stourbridge and Rowley Regis to London Marylebone on weekday mornings.

PGAT · 19 Jun 2026

devon_belle said:
Has anyone noticed any changes to Southern? Sorry if they've been posted, I did try a search.

The only change I have noticed is the 0800 from Sutton to London Bridge gaining stops at Carshalton Beeches and Waddon. Nothing much of substance though

bramling · 19 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
There's also a new 05:40 Banbury to Oxford service that runs non-stop, giving a earlier first train by 50 minutes on that route. However it has so much pathing time that it could serve all the village stations and still arrive at Oxford at the same time.

Then there is a rather bizzare occurence in the morning peak on the Aylesbury to Risborough line.
2P16 - 07:45 Aylesbury to Princes Risborough remains unchanged connecting into nothing at Risborough (or rather a 22 minute wait for 1Y17 ex Oxford at 08:24).

But the stock for the new 07:55 Princes Risborough to Marylebone service which replaces 1H12 at 07:46, comes ECS from Aylesbury at 07:37 instead of Wembley.

So you have the rather bizzare result of a train from Aylesbury running ECS to Risborough at 07:37, which could form a useful through direct service to Wycombe and London, and then at 07:45 you have the shuttle to Risborough that doesn't connect well into anything towards Wycombe and London.

Could this be deliberate? Chiltern have over the years tended to make at least some attempt to target their services towards particular stations, presumably in an attempt to match their fairly limited capacity with demand. So in essence they don’t want Aylesbury passengers using the through service in order to preserve capacity for people at and inwards from Princes Risborough. Whereas on a railway with more capacity this would all be less of an issue.

800002 · 19 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
There's also a new 05:40 Banbury to Oxford service that runs non-stop, giving a earlier first train by 50 minutes on that route. However it has so much pathing time that it could serve all the village stations and still arrive at Oxford at the same time.

Not if it's longer than a single three car.

Yosh1saurus · 19 Jun 2026

BillStampy said:
Not sure if it's been brought up: but looking at RTT it appears TfW's Bristol paths have been incorporated into the timetable.

Realtime Trains | 1R01 0834 Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads | 13/12/2026

Real-time train running information for 1R01 0834 departure from Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads on 13/12/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Example above.

Good to see that they're in, seems more likely now that it can finally start running. Unfortunate that they're only every other hour and 10 minutes behind the current services though.

Something interesting is that two services a day will call/reverse at Bristol Parkway - one of these is the first Cardiff - Bristol in the morning but the other runs from Temple Meads through to Maesteg. That diagram as a whole seems like a strange one to me:

1V35 - 0730 Manchester Piccadilly to Milford Haven
1R13 - 1356 Milford Haven to Bristol Temple Meads
5R13 - 1752 Bristol Temple Meads to Bristol West Junction, where it sits for just over an hour before returning to Temple Meads with 5R62 at 1900
1R62 - 1908 Bristol Temple Meads to Maesteg
2I37 - 2111 Maesteg to Ebbw Vale Town
2V85 - 2313 Ebbw Vale Town to Cardiff Central

Unfortunately as a result the current 1907 Ebbw Vale Town to Maesteg through service is broken and there's no official change between them - in the WTT there is 5 minutes to change at Newport which is the minimum allowed but only 3 in the passenger timetable.
The services are also pathed at 90mph between Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol - I thought the plan was to run them with 197s?

moonarrow458 · 19 Jun 2026

wls1 said:
Lots of changes across SE with lots of services back running off peak and all day Saturdays and improved Sunday services

Tunbridge wells services are back along with all day Sidcup-Greenwich rounders and Bexleyheath line - Charing Cross

AM and PM fast service Hastings - Charing Cross calling at St Leonards, Battle and Tunbridge Wells then fast to London Bridge.
0805 Hastings - Charing Cross 0933
1611 Charing Cross - Hastings 1742

Additional:
1658 Cannon St - Ashford 1813
1941 Cannon St - Canterbury East 2112

Sunday services including Woolwich line - Lewisham back 2tph

Southeastern also have the following changes on weekdays:
A new 06:04 Charing Cross to Hayes - vice ECS - fills in a 30 minute gap
08:12 Charing Cross to Orpington Fast service withdrawn
09:12 Orpington to Charing Cross Fast service withdrawn with an additional Orpington stop on 2H66 ex Tunbridge Wells
A new 08:11 Charing Cross to Tonbridge service - vice ECS - does NOT call at Orpington
A new 08:37 Charing Cross to Orpington Fast service - vice ECS
The 23:25 Hayes - Lewisham unadvertised express becomes a regular class 2 passenger service

On Sundays:
The 23:43 Hayes - Lewisham service is extended to Charing Cross

brad465 · 19 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
Southeastern also have the following changes on weekdays:

09:12 Orpington to Charing Cross Fast service withdrawn with an additional Orpington stop on 2H66 ex Tunbridge Wells

I'd be intrigued to know the thinking behind this, as this is a good way of allowing the Tunbridge Wells' service to focus on stations to Sevenoaks (especially as this is off peak from Tonbridge) and give Orpington passengers their own dedicated fast service without boarding an already crowded service.

Phillipimo · 19 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
SWR have also extended the Surbiton peak buster 2J92 to start back in service from Hampton Court at 07:44. The train will also gain a call at Berrylands as well

Makes sense considering the ECS already goes via Hampton Court to get to Surbiton.

jamieintercity · 19 Jun 2026

Don't see any changes to scotrail services

London Trains · 19 Jun 2026

devon_belle said:
Has anyone noticed any changes to Southern? Sorry if they've been posted, I did try a search.

Nothing of major significance - the Victoria to London Bridge and Victoria to West Croydon via Crystal Palace services swap paths as I mentioned a few pages back, Wandsworth Common goes up from 4tph off-peak/6tph peak to 6tph off peak/8tph peak as the aforementioned Victoria to West Croydon service has its stop there reinstated, and the Reigate services appear to no longer use Platform 12 at Victoria.

berneyarms · 20 Jun 2026

moonarrow458 said:
There's also a new 05:40 Banbury to Oxford service that runs non-stop, giving a earlier first train by 50 minutes on that route. However it has so much pathing time that it could serve all the village stations and still arrive at Oxford at the same time.

Then there is a rather bizzare occurence in the morning peak on the Aylesbury to Risborough line.
2P16 - 07:45 Aylesbury to Princes Risborough remains unchanged connecting into nothing at Risborough (or rather a 22 minute wait for 1Y17 ex Oxford at 08:24).

But the stock for the new 07:55 Princes Risborough to Marylebone service which replaces 1H12 at 07:46, comes ECS from Aylesbury at 07:37 instead of Wembley.

So you have the rather bizzare result of a train from Aylesbury running ECS to Risborough at 07:37, which could form a useful through direct service to Wycombe and London, and then at 07:45 you have the shuttle to Risborough that doesn't connect well into anything towards Wycombe and London.

Oh and then there's the 2 extra (total = 3) through trains from Stourbridge and Rowley Regis to London Marylebone on weekday mornings.

The stock off the 07:45 then does an 08:10 back to Aylesbury - is there no local demand for that service (it also connects out of the 07:11 ex-Marylebone)?

NorthKent1989 · 20 Jun 2026

cav1975 said:
A good opportunity to use the dual voltage 375s?

Can they even use the core now?

December 2026 Timetable Change

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