East Coast Lincoln diversions timetable

[ryan125hst]

This weekend (Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October), many East Coast trains are being diverted via Lincoln with others terminating at Newark North Gate if travelling southbound, or at Peterborough if travelling northbound. A few select services are also terminating at Retford and Doncaster.

According to East Coast's website:

Engineering work is taking place between Peterborough and Newark North Gate. All lines are closed between these stations and some platforms at Peterborough station are also closed.


East Coast
•An hourly (approximate) service will run to / from London Kings Cross, diverting between Peterborough and Doncaster via Lincoln and will not call at Grantham
•Other trains will only run between Newark North Gate and Leeds / York
•Replacement buses will run between Peterborough, Grantham and Newark North Gate
•Journey times will be extended by up to 90 minutes

However, I've just been looking on realtimetrains and it seems that what they have said here isn't 100% accurate. Some hours, two trains per hour are being diverted, and there seems to be little pattern in the service.

For example, looking at Doncaster, the pattern for southbound trains is as follows:

13:24 (ex 07:52 Aberdeen) to London Kings Cross via Lincoln.
13:52 (ex 11:00 Edinburgh) to Newark North Gate
13:53 (ex 13:05 Leeds) to London Kings Cross via Lincoln.

The next hour, things change:

14:23 (ex 0755 Inverness) to London Kings Cross via Lincoln.
14:35 (1405 Leeds) Newark North Gate.
15:10 (1440 Leeds) terminates at Doncaster.

I'm not going to post every hour, but as you can see, there isn't really a pattern. The next hour, there's just a train from Aberdeen to London via Lincoln, and a train from Edinburgh to Newark North Gate. There are no trains from Leeds from what I can see (presumably, they are wanting people to use the service that terminates at Doncaster and then change one of the services from Scotland depending upon whether they want to go to Retford or Newark, or Peterborough and London).

The following hour sees a trains from Edinburgh terminating at Retford, a second ex Edinburgh train going as far as Newark, and a train from Leeds to London via Lincoln.

The problem is, I can't find a timetable online for all of this. East Coast say:

Planning your Journey

For full details of the changes and the impact on your journey, please use the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner

These changes are reflected in the timetables when planning your journey or booking your ticket using the online booking engine

But are there any amended timetables online? I am not travelling this weekend, but I was just interested in how they were arranging the amended services and I though a timetable would be easier to understand than using realtimetrains. It must be difficult for passengers if the only way to work it out is using journey planners!

If anyone knows where I can find an amended timetable (preferably in pdf form), please let me know.

Thank you

Ryan

 

[stevefreestone]

Thank God I'm nowhere near Lincoln City centre this afternoon then.

 

[Welshman]

There used to be amended pdf timetables on their websites in GNER and NatEx days, but EC seem not to do so now.
Hence, as you say, the only way to find detailed timings is by using journey planners and realtimetrains, which is a bit more laborious.
I suppose they think the average passenger[sorry, customer!], just needs to know the time of departure and arrival at their destination.

 

[ryan125hst]

There used to be amended pdf timetables on their websites in GNER and NatEx days, but EC seem not to do so now.
Hence, as you say, the only way to find detailed timings is by using journey planners and realtimetrains, which is a bit more laborious.
I suppose they think the average passenger[sorry, customer!], just needs to know the time of departure and arrival at their destination.

Looking back at a thread from 2010, it looks like East Coast used to provide them as a forum member linked to an amended timetable. Unfortunately, the link is now dead and the Wayback Machine hasn't achieved the page, so I can't even look at past timetables.

 

[yorkie]

but as you can see, there isn't really a pattern.

Agreed, hence the description of approximately hourly is fair.

If anyone knows where I can find an amended timetable (preferably in pdf form), please let me know.

GNER used to produce them for download, even stating what the type of train was booked to be. NXEC put that to an end, and EC never bothered to put them back.

It can be, and has been, and should be done; EC just can't be bothered!

 

[ryan125hst]

Agreed, hence the description of approximately hourly is fair.

I noticed that and guessed that was the reason why the word approximately was included. It wouldn't have hurt for them to go into a little more detail though. Even if it said, one train between Edinburgh to London Kings Cross diverted via Lincoln, one between Edinburgh and Newark and one between Leeds and Newark for example. One thing it doesn't mention are the services between London Kings Cross and Peterborough calling at Stevenage. I gathered (correctly) that this would be the case, but many passengers wouldn't realise this.

GNER used to produce them for download, even stating what the type of train was booked to be. NXEC put that to an end, and EC never bothered to put them back.

It can be, and has been, and should be done; EC just can't be bothered!

Are you sure EC never bothered with them? TheBigD has provided a link to a timetable for diversion in August 2010 here. Sadly, the link is now dead (well, it was three years ago!).

Hull Trains and Grand Central have amended timetables on their website, so I wonder why East Coast haven't bothered?

 

[theblackwatch]

GNER used to produce them for download, even stating what the type of train was booked to be. NXEC put that to an end, and EC never bothered to put them back.

It can be, and has been, and should be done; EC just can't be bothered!

Unfortunately, it seems rail timetables are very much 'out of fashion' - I remember on once TOC's website a year or two back, the 'timetables' section actually took you to a journey planner rather than a timetable. From my expereince, 'timetables' on many TOC websites seem to be hidden away somewhere, rather than being immediately noticeable/accessible. It does seem, sadly, that most people prefer a journey planner and I suspect many actually struggle to read even the simplest of timetables.

 

[Welshman]

There used to be amended pdf timetables on their websites in GNER and NatEx days, but EC seem not to do so now.
Hence, as you say, the only way to find detailed timings is by using journey planners and realtimetrains, which is a bit more laborious.
I suppose they think the average passenger[sorry, customer!], just needs to know the time of departure and arrival at their destination.

Having said that, I note on the EC website this morning, that there is a full timetable for their revised services on Friday 27th December, when Peterborough station is closed.

http://static.eastcoastcdn.co.uk/cd...travelinformation/friday27december2013ptt.pdf

 

[ryan125hst]

Having said that, I note on the EC website this morning, that there is a full timetable for their revised services on Friday 27th December, when Peterborough station is closed.

http://static.eastcoastcdn.co.uk/cd...travelinformation/friday27december2013ptt.pdf

I noticed your thread this morning and was going to post about that. I wonder why they chose to publish a timetable for the Peterborough closure and not for the Lincoln diversions? They both have a massive effect on the timetable and journey times.