December 2026 Timetable Change

[bramling]

It's annoying because were all 30 379s better utilised, and without these new extended turnarounds, you could have very comfortably run the Cruiser services with 379s exclusively, allowing for two more pairs of 387 to be used on Cambridge stoppers.

It should certainly be possible to be running 27/30 379s on weekdays, which would cover the 387s on Fen Line services.

This would then produce 8/16 387 utilisation, however three of those were presumably intended to go to Southern at one point, and 387101 remains out of service. So potentially this reduces to 8/12. Allowing for some headroom, this probably only gives scope for one further pair of 387s, which will likely happen if Welwyn-Sevenoaks goes all-day.

I’ve always wondered if the nominal 8 GN-only 700 diagrams could be more gainfully employed on certain Southern metro routes, but this would of course require crew training, and introduce an issue that they wouldn’t be on the route of their depot at Hornsey.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

It's annoying because were all 30 379s better utilised, and without these new extended turnarounds, you could have very comfortably run the Cruiser services with 379s exclusively, allowing for two more pairs of 387 to be used on Cambridge stoppers.

The extended turnarounds are needed, it was proven the 10 mins or less during the day wasn’t robust in any sense.

 

[bramling]

The extended turnarounds are needed, it was proven the 10 mins or less during the day wasn’t robust in any sense.

100%. It shouldn’t have even been attempted. The longer turnrounds will definitely help, but they won’t be a magic bullet, as turnrounds at Kings Lynn aren’t the underlying problem, they just massively exacerbate everything else.

Presumably from December up trains will be prioritised, so passengers on down trains can expect to have plenty of opportunity to admire scenery at Littleport and Watlington.

To make an improvement it will also require slack in driver diagrams, which has never been GTR’s strong point…

 

[frodshamfella]

Whilst welcoming the long-awaited and much needed reinstatement of 4tph off peak on the Hertford loop it looks like the service after around 2130 reduces from the current half hourly to hourly. This effectively makes the line useless for returning from London evenings out. Who wants to wait for up to 59 minutes at a station with zero facilities such as Moorgate or Old Street? These are busy trains!

Welcome to the world outside London, where hourly is the norm .

 

[bramling]

I had time for a slightly more detailed look at GN outers.

As previously posted, basically the only change is Kings Lynn turnrounds.

What this means in practice is some variations in those services north of Cambridge currently worked by 387s.

Everything north of Ely is now 379, with the following exceptions which are 8/387:
1T05 0545 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T15 0815 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T57 1849 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T02 0554 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T44 1618 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T62 2048 King's Cross - Kings Lynn

The following Ely journeys become 8/387
1T27 1151 Ely - King's Cross
1T39 1451 Ely - King's Cross
1T20 1024 King's Cross - Ely
1T32 1324 King's Cross - Ely

As previously mentioned, the following services change to 4/379
1T01 0449 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T03 0517 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T06 0654 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T08 0724 King's Cross - Kings Lynn

As an aside, there are a couple of lengthy ECS moves as part of all this, which are incorporated in the new 22nd and 23rd 379 diagrams.
5T94 1124 Hornsey Depot - Kings Lynn CS
5R55 2117 Kings Lynn - Letchworth EMU Sidings
All this merely provides one return trip from Kings Lynn to King's Cross, so watch out for 1T49 and 1T54 being the first cancellations if there aren't enough 379s available.

I can't see any other obvious changes apart from a small number of tweaks to timings. Will look at weekends nearer the time.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I had time for a slightly more detailed look at GN outers.

As previously posted, basically the only change is Kings Lynn turnrounds.

What this means in practice is some variations in those services north of Cambridge currently worked by 387s.

Everything north of Ely is now 379, with the following exceptions which are 8/387:
1T05 0545 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T15 0815 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T57 1849 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T02 0554 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T44 1618 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T62 2048 King's Cross - Kings Lynn

The following Ely journeys become 8/387
1T27 1151 Ely - King's Cross
1T39 1451 Ely - King's Cross
1T20 1024 King's Cross - Ely
1T32 1324 King's Cross - Ely

As previously mentioned, the following services change to 4/379
1T01 0449 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T03 0517 Kings Lynn - King's Cross
1T06 0654 King's Cross - Kings Lynn
1T08 0724 King's Cross - Kings Lynn

As an aside, there are a couple of lengthy ECS moves as part of all this, which are incorporated in the new 22nd and 23rd 379 diagrams.
5T94 1124 Hornsey Depot - Kings Lynn CS
5R55 2117 Kings Lynn - Letchworth EMU Sidings
All this merely provides one return trip from Kings Lynn to King's Cross, so watch out for 1T49 and 1T54 being the first cancellations if there aren't enough 379s available.

I can't see any other obvious changes apart from a small number of tweaks to timings. Will look at weekends nearer the time.

Thanks so much for this.

Do you have any details of 379/387 on Cambridge/Letchworth stoppers and Peterborough peaks please? Always nice to avoid 700s

If not, if you have the link to the files I'll try and have a browse myself when I finish work.

 

[rmHawk765]

Whilst welcoming the long-awaited and much needed reinstatement of 4tph off peak on the Hertford loop it looks like the service after around 2130 reduces from the current half hourly to hourly. This effectively makes the line useless for returning from London evenings out. Who wants to wait for up to 59 minutes at a station with zero facilities such as Moorgate or Old Street? These are busy trains!

As mentioned this is due to engineering works but the regularly scheduled reduction from 4 to 2tph in the late evenings and early mornings is disappointing nonetheless, as I talked about in my detailed post about the GN Inner (lack of) changes upthread. And of course the Hertford Loop dropping down to 1tph for planned diversions is still a huge issue and I'm surprised no infrastructure improvements have been made to allow a decent stopping service to run alongside non-stop trains, despite the fact that it was suggested as far back as 2008 (!) in the ECML Route Utilisation Strategy for that year.

Ideally when diversions happen we'd add stops on diverted GN trains at the busiest of stations (Palmers Green, Winchmore Hill, Enfield Chase, Gordon Hill and Hertford North) which reduces the complexity of the service but this still requires overtaking capability or the like.

 

[Jim]

With the Gatwick Express service uplift, can we expect many 387s vanishing from Coastway West / Coastway East diagrams on Southern work in Dec?

 

[bramling]

Thanks so much for this.

Do you have any details of 379/387 on Cambridge/Letchworth stoppers and Peterborough peaks please? Always nice to avoid 700s

If not, if you have the link to the files I'll try and have a browse myself when I finish work.

For weekdays, everything that isn’t a Fen Line service is formed identical to what it is now.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

For weekdays, everything that isn’t a Fen Line service is formed identical to what it is now.

I don't know what it is now. If you have a link to the webpage with the info, that'd be great, as I'll have a browse.

 

[bramling]

I don't know what it is now. If you have a link to the webpage with the info, that'd be great, as I'll have a browse.

The current diagrams are on GTR’s website. If you give me a day or two I can post a list of which services are which, but I haven’t got an opportunity to do it at the moment.

 

[Mugby]

It's now just over 8 weeks until the December Timetable Change. When can we expect to see the new timetables appear on the respective TOC's web pages?

 

[JMW146]

Thanks for this. Interesting that Birmingham services continue to be vast majority 168 then.

Lots of services that will be Mk5 are pathed as 168s due to stopping at any of Kings Sutton, Hatton & Lapworth.

But there are two MK5+68 "peak" services each way to/from Stourbridge Junction- 0853 and 0916 arrivals to Marylebone and northbound 1707 and 1807 ex MYB.

All Stourbridge services will be Mk5, 7 days a week