East Coast Ticket for 12 September 2010

[Shutax]

I am trying to buy an Advance ticket from Edinburgh to Huddersfield for Sunday 12 September. I travel this route every week on the East Coast 17:00 train (connecting from Pilochry at 14:54). However, neither this nor the 17:30 departure appear on the East Coast or National Rail sites when I try to book. The only departure times shown around 17:00 are 16:30, 16:52, 18:10, 18:26.

I know that the East Coast timetable changes on 12 September, but the 17:00 and 17:30 departures are shown on the new timetable. There are no scheduled engineering works shown for this route on 12 September.

I know that East Coast have not released Advance tickets for Sundays later than 5 September (even though Advance tickets up to 17 September have been released for Mondays to Fridays), but this does not explain why no trains are shown at 17:00 or 17:30 at any price.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[me123]

Yes there are engineering works. I think this is playing up with the Sunday timetables, as ECML journeys after three o'clock are taking about 30 minutes longer than normal.

 

[wintonian]

There is engineering work between Newcastle and Edinburgh on 12 September: East Coast Timetable Alterations

The alternatives require a change at Manchester instead according to East Coast.

Edit: I've been beaten to it.

 

[Shutax]

Thanks for the link about the engineering works. I could not find these details on the National Rail site. The information shows that trains after 15:00 will be running on the East Coast line, but 30 minutes late. This does not explain why the 17:00 and 17:30 departures are not appearing.

 

[John @ home]

The information shows that trains after 15:00 will be running on the East Coast line, but 30 minutes late. This does not explain why the 17:00 and 17:30 departures are not appearing.

The 1700 from Edinburgh is the 1550 from Glasgow and the Timetable Alterations page shows that From 15.00 ... East Coast will not operate to/from Glasgow. The 1730 is usually from Aberdeen. I don't think we have enough information yet to know whether East Coast will operate to/from Aberdeen on that day.

Any advice?

Given that delays are expected to continue into the evening, I would avoid the East Coast line for this journey on that day. This alternative route would appear to be suitable:

ScotRail 1454 Pitlochry - Haymarket 1635
Virgin 1656 Haymarket - Lancaster 1856
TPE 1917 Lancaster - Manchester Piccadilly 2027
TPE 2042 Manchester Piccadilly - Huddersfield 2111

There are no Advance fares Pitlochry - Huddersfield by this route. It won't be possible to match the very lowest fare of £16.50 (£14.70 if booked with East Coast) via East coast and connections. But competitive prices are available by splitting at Lancaster:

Advance fare prices
Pitlochry - Lancaster route Virgin & connections from £12.50
Lancaster - Huddersfield route TPE only from £6.50

I would look out for these fares appearing over the next week or two.

All these fares will be lower if you have a national Railcard.

 

[Failed Unit]

This is the first weekend of the Edinburgh - Newcastle diversions via Carlisle so the detour will be closer to 90 minutes.

From other years the timetable has been the same South of Newcastle with an hourly Edinburgh - Newcastle service through the day. Most services that would come from Aberdeen or Inverness run direct to Newcastle. Other years we have also had the odd direct London - Inverness / Aberdeen service. For example the London - Inverness service left at 1030 to ensure it was in Edinburgh to make it timeslot to go north.

Unless you are wanting your rail miles I would go via Lancaster, but if you are not in a hurry the journey isn't bad. A lot of the diverted trains stop at Haymarket to save time for people that would have connected at Waveley onto Scotrail but no all. East coast don't serve Glasgow at all during this period as they need the paths on the Slateford route to get to Newcastle (also why would anyone not change at Carlisle!)

If you do decide to use East Coast another warning is ask for East Coast and connections only or avoid Cross-Country when booking. This is a pitfall as the booking engine will always look for the fastest route. Other years XC trains have remained in the booking engine for a while, even though they won't be running. This has caused considrable problems when trying to book online. Never understood why it has happened as it isn't as if the engineering work is a surprise, XC don't run North of Newcastle when it happens so they don't need to wait for a revised timetable and leaving them on beyond the T-12 is very annoying!

 

[Shutax]

Many thanks for your advice. I have decided to travel on Monday 13th instead.