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May 2026 timetable

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nw1

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Shame that ‘Freshwater’ 3Cig not still doing the branch honours.
Yes, remember that : that curious era when most services were Desiros but you still got a CIG on the Lymington branch.

Trying to remember when my last use of the CIG - and by extension, any Southern slam-door stock - was. Thinking of the times I've been to Lymington, and the dates the CIG was running, it's likely to have been July 2008.

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Almost a million use Brockenhurst each year so seems crazy they stopped calling. In excess of that if you include the 200k interchanging too.
Particularly given there was no discernible benefit to skipping it (as the XC stopped there for 30+ years before Covid, and for the latter part of the period, as part of a particularly intensive level of service in this section).

Withdrawal of stops really have to have a very good reason, i.e. genuine low usage or the stop causes reliability problems.
 

dk1

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Yes, remember that : that curious era when most services were Desiros but you still got a CIG on the Lymington branch.

Trying to remember when my last use of the CIG - and by extension, any Southern slam-door stock - was. Thinking of the times I've been to Lymington, and the dates the CIG was running, it's likely to have been July 2008.

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Was occasionally served by 158s too.
 

moonarrow458

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On LNWR I see that 1K57 on a Sunday evening, the 20:42 Euston to Milton Keynes Central, is going to be extended in service to Northampton.

Thus ending the quirk of two Milton Keynes terminators from Euston within 3 minutes of each other at 20:39 and 20:42 with 1K57 at 20:42 overtaking the 20:39 to get to Milton Keynes 5 minutes faster
 

bramling

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PGAT

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Leading the way as always even this early.
Southeastern have also released this
What changes are coming in the May 2026 timetables?
Our timetable will be boosted again from May 2026, and we’ll publish more details here along with the full timetables closer to the time.
The improvements include:
  • Reintroduction of Mainline services to London Blackfriars at peak times from Maidstone East and the Medway towns, providing additional capacity into London at the busiest times and restoring a direct link to Blackfriars.
  • Additional services between Charing Cross and Maidstone East on weekdays.
  • More off-peak services between London Victoria and Ashford International via Maidstone East - restoring the route to half-hourly for much of the day.
  • Extra highspeed services between Faversham and London St Pancras on Saturdays and Sundays.
  • Two additional departures from Canterbury West to London St Pancras on weekday and Saturday mornings.
Summer 2026 timetable:
  • Over the school holidays there will again be extra services from London to our great coastal destinations such as Broadstairs, Herne Bay and Whitstable.
  • There will also be more late-night services to support the stellar line up of events at Dreamland Margate.
 

Magdalia

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Interesting all the changes are to what I would describe as on the ‘regional’ services - is there no demand for improvements to their main GEML commuter services or is the mainline already ‘full’
The regional services are where more capacity is needed, especially for commuting into Cambridge and Norwich. Most Greater Anglia commuting to and from London is still below pre pandemic levels, so, in most cases, there is no need for improvements on the main routes to and from London.
 

dk1

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Could they blow their own trumpet more in that press release? On the regional part one could spin it in a slightly less rosy way - “slower journeys between Norwich and Sheringham / Lowestoft”.
Only very slightly slower. Overall it’s excellent news for the booming Bittern Line.
 

Adrian1980uk

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The regional services are where more capacity is needed, especially for commuting into Cambridge and Norwich. Most Greater Anglia commuting to and from London is still below pre pandemic levels, so, in most cases, there is no need for improvements on the main routes to and from London.
This year (I know sample size is small for this year) the peak services are now beginning to be standing room only from/to Colchester on the Norwich services so won't be long before more trains are needed. There are 2 issues with this though, there are very limited paths to add services and there are no surplus trains to fulfil the services if they wanted to anyway without stealing more from Stansted express.
 

Ian Hardy

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This year (I know sample size is small for this year) the peak services are now beginning to be standing room only from/to Colchester on the Norwich services so won't be long before more trains are needed. There are 2 issues with this though, there are very limited paths to add services and there are no surplus trains to fulfil the services if they wanted to anyway without stealing more from Stansted express.
The reason that the Norwich services are full are because they are faster than the other Class 720 operated services towards London. If the Norwich services didn't stop at Colchester, would they be full?

I think that there are spare class 720 units as the pre-COVID timetable hasn't been completely restored (or there are some services that a 5 car 720 rather than a 10 car) so that isn't a limiting factor. Spare paths are the issue though.
 

Adrian1980uk

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The reason that the Norwich services are full are because they are faster than the other Class 720 operated services towards London. If the Norwich services didn't stop at Colchester, would they be full?

I think that there are spare class 720 units as the pre-COVID timetable hasn't been completely restored (or there are some services that a 5 car 720 rather than a 10 car) so that isn't a limiting factor. Spare paths are the issue though.
Agreed there are some 720s available hence they'd be steeling the 745s from Stansted and replacing them with 720s.
 

mikestone1952

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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?
Apologies if already posted but they have no longer appear to be serving Blackpool with the trains involved showing ECS Crewe CS to Preston and vv
 

GoneSouth

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That huge untapped demand from people wishing to leave Blackpool at stupid o'clock on a Saturday morning.
Saves on hotel bills, straight from the bar to the train!

Why are those services only 1 way in Saturday and Sunday, seems odd

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There's never a bad time to leave Blackpool! 8-)

(If the staff will allow you onto the platform.)
They’ll be extra grumpy at that time in the morning.
 
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Class15

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Noticed a huge cull in unused paths for freightliner out of Felixstowe in particular that are simply being deleted, is there a reason why this is happening as many of these had been unused for ages before this and are only now being chopped? Doesn’t this also reduce flexibility for future changes.
 

The Planner

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Noticed a huge cull in unused paths for freightliner out of Felixstowe in particular that are simply being deleted, is there a reason why this is happening as many of these had been unused for ages before this and are only now being chopped? Doesn’t this also reduce flexibility for future changes.
Its probably being done under Part J of the Network Code, they can't hoard paths. Some may end up being kept at strategic/QJ paths.
 

mikestone1952

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A number of the re-instated CrossCountry trains to Reading have been taken out again - I did wonder if it was pending a retiming to join the ones not stopping at Banbury?
 

Mitchell Hurd

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A number of the re-instated CrossCountry trains to Reading have been taken out again - I did wonder if it was pending a retiming to join the ones not stopping at Banbury?

Would this be to do with Grand Central's Newcastle to Brighton services?
 

Mitchell Hurd

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Interesting LNER change on this timetable and one that's not likely to go down well with passengers...

On weekdays, the current 14:03 from London Kings Cross to Aberdeen now terminates at Edinburgh, 14:52 from Aberdeen terminated at Edinburgh before running the 18:36 to Aberdeen.

The 10:03 and 16:00 from London Kings Cross to Aberdeen runs as normal!
 

Goldfish62

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There are actually some changes on SWR from May!

All Reading services now stop at Vauxhall in both directions, with departures from Waterloo two minutes earlier than now.

On Mon-Fri the 2048 and 2148 from Waterloo are extended from Bracknell to Reading, while the 2248 is extended to Wokingham. There is also a new 2241 from Reading to Waterloo.

The above have followed intense lobbying by local MPs.
 

Harpo

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The reason that the Norwich services are full are because they are faster than the other Class 720 operated services towards London. If the Norwich services didn't stop at Colchester, would they be full?
Commuters have comfort preferences too. When their beloved Clactons (309s) finished, the loadings of the Norwichs increased from Colchester in preference to using the BINs (321s). I’d not be surprised if there is some 720 avoidance.
 

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