May 2026 timetable

[43074]

Of interest on GA regional services are the return of the 08:04 & 18:02 (SX) Norwich-Great Yarmouth and return. Both withdrawn during the pandemic. Also an interesting evening service at 21:54 Norwich-Beccles obviously via Lowestoft returning at 23:00. The last train to Lowestoft departs Norwich Monday-Saturday slightly later at 22:51.

The Norwich-Cambridge route sees additional services each day including an extra service as far as Ely at 21:40 thus providing a standard hourly service across the Breckland line right up until 22:40.

Earlier & later trains operate on the Bittern line to Sheringham on Sundays providing 15 services in each direction which must be the best ever on that route.

Quite a few changes on the Regional routes from Norwich

Salhouse and Worstead seem to gain hourly calls on the Sheringham route, and the Lowestoft services which used to be fast to Oulton Broad North are standardised to call at all stations except Brundall Gardens

Departure times from Norwich have been brought forward by a few minutes:
xx:32 Great Yarmouth
xx:41 Sheringham
xx:54 Lowestoft

 

[Ian Hardy]

That huge untapped demand from people wishing to leave Blackpool at stupid o'clock on a Saturday morning.

ORCATS Raiding further south to make the Lumo services pay.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

These changes, plus the Conwy Valley Recast, extra Wrexham-Chester-Crewe services and the prospective Network North(-east) Wales show signs of serious improvement in North Wales. Certainly appropriate given how many improvements there have been in South Wales.

TfW seems to have kept the existing start times at Liverpool and Crewe, and projected those services to/from Llandudno and Wrexham respectively.

I can't see an 0732 Chester-Euston, one of the key peak Avanti services.
The 0545 ex Holyhead (1D25) terminates at Chester as now but there is no 1R25 (ex-Wrexham) forward - maybe an error.

TfW clockface times at Chester (most of the day):
xx21/27 Holyhead-Cardiff or Llandudno Jn-Birmingham
xx27 Birmingham-Llandudno Jn or Cardiff-Holyhead
xx34 Liverpool-Llandudno
xx43 Llandudno-Liverpool
xx44 Crewe-Wrexham
xx52 Holyhead-Manchester Airport
xx53 Manchester Airport-Holyhead
xx58 Wrexham-Crewe

Flint gets 3tph, and Shotton 2tph with the Manchester-Holyhead services now stopping as well as the Liverpool-Llandudno.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

Is the Lumo Blackpool service an error? I don’t ever remember them ever applying for such a service?

 

[cle]

Great to see many long awaited changes coming into play.

If Liverpool-Llandudno is hourly, what happens to the Liverpool-Wrexham/Shrewsbury/Cardiff intentions? And would that be a future split service, or an additional tph out of Liverpool?

Wrexham-Chester-Crewe shuttle might cover some of the immediate frequency, but not the Liverpool connection.

It appears the Overground will now have a 2tph shuttle in the peaks between Clapham Junction and Shepherd’s Bush, using Platform 17 at CLJ.

So this will be run by LO / 378s? I had thought maybe Southern. How many return journeys?

 

[MikeWM]

The Norwich-Cambridge route sees additional services each day including an extra service as far as Ely at 21:40 thus providing a standard hourly service across the Breckland line right up until 22:40.

That is very welcome, I see it applies on Saturday too. I'll be making use of that!

Elsewhere on GA, the two 'missing' evening peak services from Cambridge North to Liverpool Street are still missing, however. I wonder if they'll ever work out how to fit these in. Admittedly this is less of an issue since the December change as the gaps in the evening service at North are much more evenly spaced.

The Sunday morning Ipswich-Peterborough service is back as usual, but also as usual it only runs until mid-September. I know I do go on about this, but it would be incredibly useful if this were to run all year around, given how late the first service to Peterborough is otherwise.

 

[dk1]

That is very welcome, I see it applies on Saturday too. I'll be making use of that!

Elsewhere on GA, the two 'missing' evening peak services from Cambridge North to Liverpool Street are still missing, however. I wonder if they'll ever work out how to fit these in. Admittedly this is less of an issue since the December change as the gaps in the evening service at North are much more evenly spaced.

The Sunday morning Ipswich-Peterborough service is back as usual, but also as usual it only runs until mid-September. I know I do go on about this, but it would be incredibly useful if this were to run all year around, given how late the first service to Peterborough is otherwise.

Yes I have never quite understood why the early SuO Ipswich-Peterborough is seasonal.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jan 2026 ==

Quite a few changes on the Regional routes from Norwich

Salhouse and Worstead seem to gain hourly calls on the Sheringham route, and the Lowestoft services which used to be fast to Oulton Broad North are standardised to call at all stations except Brundall Gardens

Departure times from Norwich have been brought forward by a few minutes:
xx:32 Great Yarmouth
xx:41 Sheringham
xx:54 Lowestoft

All in all an excellent timetable for regional passengers on GA. How odd that the new 08:08 Norwich-Cambridge skips Wymondham.

 

[Farigiraf]

Salhouse and Worstead seem to gain hourly calls on the Sheringham route, and the Lowestoft services which used to be fast to Oulton Broad North are standardised to call at all stations except Brundall Gardens

xx:41 Sheringham

Pros and cons here, as while the hourly service to the smaller Wherry/Bittern line stations will be great, the slight retiming of the Sheringham train means that it departs just before the services from Stansted, Great Yarmouth and London arrive - turning a 3-minute connection at Norwich (coming from Cambridge) into a 57 minute connection (or 29 minutes if you change at Ely onto EMR).

Some of the increases make sense: Reedham, Brundall and at a stretch Somerleyton and Worstead do justify an hourly service or better, but I don't understand why they chose to make Salhouse (on the edge of a small village) hourly while keeping Roughton Road (useful for southern Cromer, the zoo and the miniature railway) at every 2 hours.

 

[IrishDave]

Pros and cons here, as while the hourly service to the smaller Wherry/Bittern line stations will be great, the slight retiming of the Sheringham train means that it departs just before the services from Stansted, Great Yarmouth and London arrive - turning a 3-minute connection at Norwich (coming from Cambridge) into a 57 minute connection (or 29 minutes if you change at Ely onto EMR).

Some of the increases make sense: Reedham, Brundall and at a stretch Somerleyton and Worstead do justify an hourly service or better, but I don't understand why they chose to make Salhouse (on the edge of a small village) hourly while keeping Roughton Road (useful for southern Cromer, the zoo and the miniature railway) at every 2 hours.

The issue with Roughton Road is that the Sheringham trains have to cross at North Walsham - and there is only time for trains to call at Gunton and Roughton Road in one direction or the other, if the train is to get from North Walsham to Sheringham and back in an hour, to give an even hourly service. Trains call hourly in the peak by slightly dilating the times - so after 17:41, the departures are 18:53, 20:00, 20:58 and so on - to allow time for trains to call in both directions.
There are no issues between Norwich and North Walsham, so all trains can call at Salhouse without issue.

 

[dk1]

Pros and cons here, as while the hourly service to the smaller Wherry/Bittern line stations will be great, the slight retiming of the Sheringham train means that it departs just before the services from Stansted, Great Yarmouth and London arrive - turning a 3-minute connection at Norwich (coming from Cambridge) into a 57 minute connection (or 29 minutes if you change at Ely onto EMR).

Some of the increases make sense: Reedham, Brundall and at a stretch Somerleyton and Worstead do justify an hourly service or better, but I don't understand why they chose to make Salhouse (on the edge of a small village) hourly while keeping Roughton Road (useful for southern Cromer, the zoo and the miniature railway) at every 2 hours.

One of the problems has always been north of North Walsham as it takes slightly longer and is difficult to keep to an hourly pattern and call at all stations in both directions. The xx:00 from Liverpool Street has never been an official connection for most of the day but I do agree that unfortunately Stansted/Cambridge services will no longer be. On the plus side, making the Yarmouth services depart a few minutes earlier in both directions reinstates the connection into the xx:52 EMR departures after they were brought forward severing that connection last month.

 

[cle]

Elsewhere on GA, the two 'missing' evening peak services from Cambridge North to Liverpool Street are still missing, however. I wonder if they'll ever work out how to fit these in. Admittedly this is less of an issue since the December change as the gaps in the evening service at North are much more evenly spaced.

Are these the previous Ely/Lynn-Liverpool Street peak services? As I thought all of the 'regular' ones went to North now.

 

[Halwynd]

Lumo West Coast are in.

Apparently they will be running trains between London Euston and Blackpool North!

Monday to Friday:
1A00 06.12 Blackpool North to London Euston
1P04 19.12 London Euston to Blackpool North

Saturday:
1A00 05.29 Blackpool North to London Euston

Sunday:
1P03 19.35 London Euston to Blackpool North

I wonder if they're genuine planned services?

For years there's been no service from Crewe to Warrington, Wigan and Preston between around 20:09 and 22:19.

If the 19:12 Euston - Blackpool Lumo service runs then at least Preston would have a service from Crewe at 21:23, just a pity it doesn't call at Warrington or Wigan.

 

[Stephen42]

So this will be run by LO / 378s? I had thought maybe Southern. How many return journeys?

They are London Overground schedules. 3 return trips in the morning peak and 5 in the afternoon peak. Based on what's currently uploaded which look like 2 complete diagrams with associated empty movements: Morning 07:09 to 08:33 south from Shepherds Bush missing the one after 8am. Afternoon 16:32 to 18:31 south from Shepherds Bush without gaps. The northbounds from Clapham are roughly 20 minutes later the southbound departure.

 

[MikeWM]

Are these the previous Ely/Lynn-Liverpool Street peak services? As I thought all of the 'regular' ones went to North now.

One gets missed out because the 1554 from LST only goes to Cambridge rather than to North, with the return trip leaving Cambridge at 1745. The other gets missed as the same happens with the 1653 from LST, the return leaving Cambridge at 1845. 'On pattern' these would run to North and the returns start back from there, so North misses two trains at around 1740 and 1840.

I'm really not sure why this is the case anymore. There doesn't seem to be anything preventing them from running to North instead of Cambridge itself, and platform 3 at North is available. I can see that starting the 1745 back at North would possibly clash with the 1738 departure of the Norwich to Cambridge, but starting the 1845 at North wouldn't appear to clash with anything.

There would be a similar issue at around 1940, but the 1808 LST-Ely splits at Cambridge and the back half runs a Cambridge-Cambridge North 'shuttle' in order to start the service at North.

All this appears to be the same in the May timetable too.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Chiltern is up. Doesn’t seem to be anything noticeably different, except what looks like more Q paths for Mk5 test runs.
CORRECTION: Mk5 test runs same as now I think

 

[LittleRedTrain]

Looking at the XC services, it appears that pretty much all of the Newcastle - Reading services are in to be hourly. Is this actually going to happen or will these be cancelled as they are just placeholders for the path?

Annoyingly, 1V84 (0950 Derby-Reading) seems to be planned to non-stop Banbury on weekdays (but not Saturdays)
(https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G01178/2026-05-27/detailed).

It's the only XC service that does so, and annoyingly breaks what would be a consistent (and welcome) return to a full service of 2tph fast trains from Banbury-Oxford. Can see a few people getting caught out by that.

 

[cle]

One gets missed out because the 1554 from LST only goes to Cambridge rather than to North, with the return trip leaving Cambridge at 1745. The other gets missed as the same happens with the 1653 from LST, the return leaving Cambridge at 1845. 'On pattern' these would run to North and the returns start back from there, so North misses two trains at around 1740 and 1840.

I'm really not sure why this is the case anymore. There doesn't seem to be anything preventing them from running to North instead of Cambridge itself, and platform 3 at North is available. I can see that starting the 1745 back at North would possibly clash with the 1738 departure of the Norwich to Cambridge, but starting the 1845 at North wouldn't appear to clash with anything.

There would be a similar issue at around 1940, but the 1808 LST-Ely splits at Cambridge and the back half runs a Cambridge-Cambridge North 'shuttle' in order to start the service at North.

All this appears to be the same in the May timetable too.

Once South opens, having these North starters as standard will become even more important, as those intra-Cambridge journeys really start to take off, especially if they get to turn up and go patterns.

 

[Segedunum]

Annoyingly, 1V84 (0950 Derby-Reading) seems to be planned to non-stop Banbury on weekdays (but not Saturdays)
(https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G01178/2026-05-27/detailed).

It's the only XC service that does so, and annoyingly breaks what would be a consistent (and welcome) return to a full service of 2tph fast trains from Banbury-Oxford. Can see a few people getting caught out by that.

Looks like it passes a freight train at Banbury (bound for Southampton) creating the tightest acceptable headway (freight follows it out three mins behind).

It's also loaded up with pathing allowance after Hatton to allow a Chiltern service to terminate, and it looks like if you arrived in later you'd struggle to shunt the unit around to Platform 1 in time without clashing (seeing as it reverses at a signal on the mainline towards Birmingham).

There are probably alternatives (run the Chiltern later, straight into P1, straight back out for example), but skipping Banbury was likely seen as the best compromise with the time and resource available.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Chiltern is up. Doesn’t seem to be anything noticeably different, except what looks like more Q paths for Mk5 test runs.

Nope, I was wrong. Mk5 test paths look the same as before I think

 

[swt_passenger]

Looking at the XC services, it appears that pretty much all of the Newcastle - Reading services are in to be hourly. Is this actually going to happen or will these be cancelled as they are just placeholders for the path?

I thought they alternate from Reading to York or Newcastle, although in the afternoon there’s a sequence of 3 York only trains, where the earlier alternating pattern fails. But working towards a full York/Newcastle pattern has been discussed for a year or two, ie Newcastle only a 2 hourly service, so it’s basically what we have been expecting?

 

[LittleRedTrain]

Looks like GWR services are in.
It looks like there will be three Banbury-Oxford stoppers each way on a Sunday, compared to none at the moment, so Tackley and Heyford will get a Sunday service.

EDIT: Reading up, it sounds like this is actually the usual pattern, with these stations only getting a Sunday service during the summer months.... If they're going to start building a huge number of houses at Heyford, this will have to change in future.

 

[SeanM1997]

Avanti appears to have removed:
0840 London Euston - Edinburgh
1652 Edinburgh - London Euston
1730 Glasgow Central - London Euston

0703 Wrexham General - London Euston
1731 Chester - London Euston
2002 London Euston - Holyhead

1205 London Euston - Crewe
1529 Crewe - London Euston
1943 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street

0629 London Euston - Manchester Piccadilly

Added:
0905 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street calling at Runcorn, Lichfield Trent Valley and Tamworth
1205 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street calling at Runcorn, Lichfield Trent Valley and Tamworth
1205 Liverpool Lime Street - London Euston calling at Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley and Runcorn
1505 Liverpool Lime Street - London Euston calling at Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley and Runcorn
1929 Chester - London Euston calling at Crewe, Stafford and Milton Keynes Central

 

[Starmill]

Avanti appears to have removed:
0840 London Euston - Edinburgh
1652 Edinburgh - London Euston
1730 Glasgow Central - London Euston

0703 Wrexham General - London Euston
1731 Chester - London Euston
2002 London Euston - Holyhead

1205 London Euston - Crewe
1529 Crewe - London Euston
1943 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street

0629 London Euston - Manchester Piccadilly

Added:
0905 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street calling at Runcorn, Lichfield Trent Valley and Tamworth
1205 London Euston - Liverpool Lime Street calling at Runcorn, Lichfield Trent Valley and Tamworth
1205 Liverpool Lime Street - London Euston calling at Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley and Runcorn
1505 Liverpool Lime Street - London Euston calling at Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley and Runcorn
1929 Chester - London Euston calling at Crewe, Stafford and Milton Keynes Central

I suspect they just haven't been published yet, and aren't removed.

Is the Lumo Blackpool service an error? I don’t ever remember them ever applying for such a service?

Probably not. They can just run empty or shunt elsewhere if they don't get the rights to serve those stations. They can also just not run at all if they don't have rights for any of it.

Given ORR previously did approve some Blackpool - London services they probably have sensible chances.

Sunday Cardiff to Nottingham is showing as hourly again if Cross Country can deliver it of course.

Northern services are showing the usual level on Sundays as well, but I would have confidence that in both cases a Sunday service as today will be what runs.

 

[dk1]

Continuing to peruse the GA Regional services I note that an additional 08:08 (SX) Norwich to Cambridge service runs along with a 17:10 return. These are joined by the aforementioned 21:40 Norwich to Ely & return to keep the hourly pattern running all evening.

On the Ipswich to Cambridge route an additional 07:17 (SX) operates returning ECS. There is then an afternoon ECS back to Cambridge to form a new 17:05 (SX) Cambridge to Ipswich. These should assist the chronic crowding seen on some of these services nowadays especially if a 755/3 is used.

The Sheringham line goes hourly all evening and all day Sundays with an earlier start and later finish. As previously mentioned, Worstead & Salhouse are the big winners here.

Norwich-Lowestoft services nearly all become stoppers with some through running from/to the East Suffolk line. The 21:54 Norwich-Beccles being an interesting example. Also some Lowestoft trains run through to/from Cambridge/Stansted which is quite an unusual but welcome move. GA & NXEA/Anglia have always been weary of advertising through services at Norwich.

 

[Segedunum]

Continuing to peruse the GA Regional services I note that an additional 08:08 (SX) Norwich to Cambridge service runs along with a 17:10 return. These are joined by the aforementioned 21:40 Norwich to Ely & return to keep the hourly pattern running all evening.

On the Ipswich to Cambridge route an additional 07:17 (SX) operates returning ECS. There is then an afternoon ECS back to Cambridge to form a new 17:05 (SX) Cambridge to Ipswich. These should assist the chronic crowding seen on some of these services nowadays especially if a 755/3 is used.

The Sheringham line goes hourly all evening and all day Sundays with an earlier start and later finish. As previously mentioned, Worstead & Salhouse are the big winners here.

Norwich-Lowestoft services nearly all become stoppers with some through running from/to the East Suffolk line. The 21:54 Norwich-Beccles being an interesting example. Also some Lowestoft trains run through to/from Cambridge/Stansted which is quite an unusual but welcome move. GA & NXEA/Anglia have always been weary of advertising through services at Norwich.

I do like this Ipswich to Norwich via Lowestoft: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P01661/2026-06-11/detailed

I assume it'll be advertised as Cantley or Lowestoft on station screens, of course, to save someone from a very long detour

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Great to see many long awaited changes coming into play.
If Liverpool-Llandudno is hourly, what happens to the Liverpool-Wrexham/Shrewsbury/Cardiff intentions? And would that be a future split service, or an additional tph out of Liverpool?
Wrexham-Chester-Crewe shuttle might cover some of the immediate frequency, but not the Liverpool connection.

The Liverpool-Wrexham-Shrewsbury-Cardiff has been put on the back burner.
TfW are restricted to 1tph out of both Liverpool and Manchester, so would be a split at Chester if started.
The Crewe-Wrexham is a good way of at least getting 2tph to Wrexham.
Liverpool-Wrexham connecting at Chester (same platform) works quite well, and there's always the 4tph Merseyrail connections.

 

[dk1]

I do like this Ipswich to Norwich via Lowestoft: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P01661/2026-06-11/detailed

I assume it'll be advertised as Cantley or Lowestoft on station screens, of course, to save someone from a very long detour

I know, great isn’t it? Yes I’m imagining that’ll be the case to save any confusion as happens at Leeds/York with Harrogate line trains.

 

[Chrism20]

Avanti appears to have removed:
0840 London Euston - Edinburgh
1652 Edinburgh - London Euston

0840 returns to Euston as the 1452 and the 1652 is the 1040 ex Euston which Are both showing so more than likely still to be added.

 

[Peter0124]

Appears two of the new Euston-Liverpool extras added will be operated by 5 car 805s. Being 1F15/1A37 and 1F21/1A55.

Is this due to the Weaver Jn electricity shortage or just a timetabling convenience?

 

[Tom]

Network Rail have pre-advised that the upload isn't due to be complete until Friday morning so I would suggest caution about missing LTP services at the moment.