May 2026 timetable

[AMD]

Edinburgh to Leven via Dunfermline becomes a seven day service with the extension of the Glenrothes services to Leven for the bulk of the day on a Sunday.

 

[LittleRedTrain]

The Banbury MP has now taken up the case regarding the Banbury non-stopping XC services

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Personally I think it's ridiculous that Banbury doesn't get a half hourly fast service to its nearest major city.

Hopefully he can get them to back peddle in time to sell it as a Labour win ahead of the local elections!

[Image shows a letter from Sean Woodcock MP to CrossCountry MD Shiona Rolfe asking her to reconsider the decision]

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Why some trains will not be stopping at Banbury

From May 17 new CrossCountry services between Oxford and Leamington Spa will not stop at Banbury.

www.bbc.co.uk

An MP has written to a train company asking them to reconsider plans for new train services that will skip the town he represents.
Train operator CrossCountry announced a new timetable from 17 May, which includes new services running directly between Oxford and Leamington Spa - without stopping at Banbury.
The town's MP, Sean Woodcock, has questioned the decision, saying that overcrowding issues were "already a source of frustration" for commuters, and that having services skip the station could "only make things worse".
CrossCountry defended its new timetable, saying that its customers would "see no change" in the number of services from Banbury.
It said the trains concerned were four extra long-distance services that would "provide more seats for people travelling long distances."
The rail company's service delivery director, Nick Westcott, said that having services skip Banbury would encourage "people travelling locally to use other trains.
He added that Chiltern Railways was currently planning a "significant increase" to services between Banbury and Birmingham.


But Woodcock said the new trains were "plugging the gap" left by train services cut during the Covid-19 pandemic, which once contributed to a half-hourly fast service between Banbury and Oxford.
The decision to skip Banbury means there will still be an hour's gap in services between the two Oxfordshire stations at certain times of the day.
"Passengers in Banbury will not see the same improvements in frequency and connectivity as those at other stations along the route," the MP said, in a letter to Cross Country's managing director Shiona Rolfe.
"I would urge you to reconsider this approach and explore options to ensure that Banbury can share in the benefits of the revised timetable."
In response, the operator said that it "will continue to monitor passenger demand" at Banbury, and "welcome feedback on the changes".
A £16m pound scheme to improve access to Banbury Station was completed last year.

According to this article XC have said it’s to do with getting people to use other services (I’m guessing to manage crowding). I thought it was more to do with pathing issues?

 

[The Planner]

In some cases its pathing for freights that are around.

 

[Harpo]

Why some trains will not be stopping at Banbury

From May 17 new CrossCountry services between Oxford and Leamington Spa will not stop at Banbury.

www.bbc.co.uk

According to this article XC have said it’s to do with getting people to use other services

From that BBC piece:

The rail company's service delivery director, Nick Westcott, said that having services skip Banbury would encourage "people travelling locally to use other trains.

He added that Chiltern Railways was currently planning a "significant increase" to services between Banbury and Birmingham.

That only works for those travelling to Birmingham and no further. Passengers for Coventry, International, connections from New St., Reading, etc., have no ‘other trains’.

 

[Watershed]

It's so frustrating that TOC MDs feel the need to spin and essentially lie about the reasons for unpopular timetable changes.

We need a culture of honesty in the industry, where it's OK for them to put their hands up and admit that they have dropped the ball by not running these services for long enough that freight operators could take their paths.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

It's so frustrating that TOC MDs feel the need to spin and essentially lie about the reasons for unpopular timetable changes.

We need a culture of honesty in the industry, where it's OK for them to put their hands up and admit that they have dropped the ball by not running these services for long enough that freight operators could take their paths.

Agreed. I also feel like the pathing issue is probably more likely for the public to be able to accept than just saying “we want you to use other services”

 

[Goldfish62]

That only works for those travelling to Birmingham and no further. Passengers for Coventry, International, connections from New St., Reading, etc., have no ‘other trains’.

And that's on top of the frequent cancellations, often of consecutive or last trains (or as in the case of last Sunday, both).

 

[Harpo]

XC’s suggestion (see post #393) that passengers use ‘other local services’ in place of withdrawn stops may be the first time that there has been any official acknowledgement of the extent to which XC has become overloaded by being forced to act as a local service as well as an InterCity and Regional one.

However, much like pricing passengers off, this comes with no real ‘Plan B’ that provides alternative new capacity for those squeezed out.

I do wonder though if this first official and tacit acknowledgement of XC overloading might get reversed-out or replaced? I suspect DfT has a view.

 

[Goldfish62]

XC’s suggestion (see post #393) that passengers use ‘other local services’ in place of withdrawn stops may be the first time that there has been any official acknowledgement of the extent to which XC has become overloaded by being forced to act as a local service as well as an InterCity and Regional one.

However, much like pricing passengers off, this comes with no real ‘Plan B’ that provides alternative new capacity for those squeezed out.

I do wonder though if this first official and tacit acknowledgement of XC overloading might get reversed-out or replaced? I suspect DfT has a view.

"Other local services" southbound being the two-hourly GWR stopper to Didcot. Making this hourly would help, but I very much doubt that GWR have the rolling stock.

 

[swt_passenger]

XC’s suggestion (see post #393) that passengers use ‘other local services’ in place of withdrawn stops may be the first time that there has been any official acknowledgement of the extent to which XC has become overloaded by being forced to act as a local service as well as an InterCity and Regional one.

However, much like pricing passengers off, this comes with no real ‘Plan B’ that provides alternative new capacity for those squeezed out.

I do wonder though if this first official and tacit acknowledgement of XC overloading might get reversed-out or replaced? I suspect DfT has a view.

Well it could be the first time since they used the same excuse to remove some calls from Brockenhurst and Winchester. IIRC there was a phase where some south coast services missed out Reading - possibly on Saturdays only though?

 

[LittleRedTrain]

The 'non-stop' trains run directly between Leamington and New Street, and from experience, tend to be less overcrowded than the Manchester trains, which tend to get overwhelmed with local passengers between New St and Coventry.
Therefore, in theory, there should be *more* room for Banbury passengers on these.

There's still the question of why the people of Leamington deserve to have direct trains to Derby, York/Newcastle and Oxford but the people of Banbury (a major railhead for local villages) do not!

A possible compromise could be to add Pick Up/Set Down only restrictions at Banbury to allow the trains to be used between Banbury and Oxford, but not Banbury and Birmingham, however that would just cause confusion.

 

[Kite159]

Well it could be the first time since they used the same excuse to remove some calls from Brockenhurst and Winchester. IIRC there was a phase where some south coast services missed out Reading - possibly on Saturdays only though?

There was a summer when some Saturday services skipped Basingstoke to combat 'severe overcrowding' (even though in my experience XC is far worse north of Reading than it is south of Reading, although nothing compared with Coventry to Birmingham or Birmingham to Wolverhampton)

Skipping Banbury also will improve ticket revenue due to Banbury being a common splitting point (historically the boundary of Network SouthEast, and no doubt there will be some XC staff who will take no prisoners if someone boards one of those trains with a Banbury split when it doesn't stop at Banbury).

 

[Goldfish62]

The 'non-stop' trains run directly between Leamington and New Street, and from experience, tend to be less overcrowded than the Manchester trains, which tend to get overwhelmed with local passengers between New St and Coventry.
Therefore, in theory, there should be *more* room for Banbury passengers on these.

Exactly. They start from Reading whereas the ones that start from Bournemouth are often full when arriving at Reading.

If I were catching a XC service from Banbury to Birmingham or Oxford / Reading it's the ones that aren't going to stopping that I would have aimed for.

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The 'non-stop' trains run directly between Leamington and New Street, and from experience, tend to be less overcrowded than the Manchester trains, which tend to get overwhelmed with local passengers between New St and Coventry.
Therefore, in theory, there should be *more* room for Banbury passengers on these.

Exactly. They start from Reading whereas the ones that start from Bournemouth are often full when arriving at Reading.

If I were catching a XC service from Banbury to Birmingham or Oxford / Reading it's the ones that aren't going to stopping that I would have aimed for.

These are, these days, much more likely to be formed of just four coaches than the Bournemouth Manchester services though, which are usually 5/8/9 coaches.

 

[frodshamfella]

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

Presumably the TFW service then just does Liverpool- Chester, but I agree, if it stops that early its a bit half hearted .

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 May 2026 ==

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

I found 19.34 to be the last direct service from Llandudno . From Liverpool Lime Street, 18.48 is the last direct to Llandudno .

 

[Llandudno]

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

and no through service on a Sunday…!

Just one train per hour for most of the day west of Chester on Sundays, dreadful, admittedly not as bad as no Northern service on Sundays, Chester - Leeds and just a handful of trains between Chester - Northwich - Manchester…!

 

[berneyarms]

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

You can still get TfW services from Liverpool to Chester at 19:47, 20:47, 21:47 and connect into services along the North Wales coast on Monday to Friday. There is a 23:22 from Liverpool to Chester as well but that has a long wait at Chester for a connection.

Saturdays have TfW services from Liverpool at 19:46 and 21:47 that have connections at Chester for the North Wales Coast.

I imagine that running later trains to Llandudno might be stymied by the line opening hours - I suspect that the signal boxes on the Llandudno branch close after the last train from Llandudno returns to the Junction at 22:04.

 

[Djgr]

TfW making quite a lot of fanfare about the new direct Llandudno to liverpool services.

Looking at RTT trains it seems the last direct train back from Liverpool is at 18.48, it seems rather early and if you want to do a full day of anything and go for a meal it means you will still need to go via merseyrail. Not great.

Well it's a start. As you know, getting any service improvements in this part of the world requires a lot of patience and ongoing pestering.

Was Chester to Liverpool via Halton Curve not only every two hours when it started?

 

[Ellis101]

Well it's a start. As you know, getting any service improvements in this part of the world requires a lot of patience and ongoing pestering.

Was Chester to Liverpool via Halton Curve not only every two hours when it started?

No it was hourly when it started, went two hourly as a "temporary" measure during covid but took until around 2024* to return back to normal.

 

[frodshamfella]

Well it's a start. As you know, getting any service improvements in this part of the world requires a lot of patience and ongoing pestering.

Was Chester to Liverpool via Halton Curve not only every two hours when it started?

No, but it was during, and for a long time after Covid, for some odd reason.

 

[nw1]

Well it could be the first time since they used the same excuse to remove some calls from Brockenhurst and Winchester. IIRC there was a phase where some south coast services missed out Reading - possibly on Saturdays only though?

In the 80s that was the case with many summer Saturday additionals, probably due to the need to run locos round at Reading in those days which could have led to congestion issues. Don't recall anything skipping Reading in the privatisation era, though.

My question though is: they stopped the trains at Banbury pre-Covid, why can they not now? Is the railway really more congested than pre-Covid? It's also a standard stop on XC services and their predecessors going way back to the 1970s if not before.

Same goes for Brockenhurst though IIRC they are bringing those calls back.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2026 ==

Looks like I was wrong about the Cosham calls being added back for the May 2026 timetable. These services will continue to no longer call!

Another symptom of the kind of thing discussed above re. Banbury. Seemingly pointless removal of calls that have been there for several decades, with weak excuses doubtless dreamed up by bean-counters who think that if you save a small amount of money (the minimal wear and tear engine costs of stopping perhaps?) it's a major win. Cardiff services have called at Cosham for as long as I remember, IIRC we have to go back to loco-hauled days to find a time when they did not stop.

 

[td97]

Sunday service also improved, with new service
0753 Blackpool North to Manchester Airport

Now removed from schedules. Sounded far too good to be true anyway.

 

[dk1]

I see a LNER have added a new very short service 1B82 from Newark Northgate to Lincoln Central on Sunday mornings at 10:30. Runs nonstop and utilises an ECS move from Doncaster IEP depot.
Crucially it provides an earlier first connection from London to Lincoln using the 0903 Kings Cross to Edinburgh service to newark then 1B82. Also connects into an EMR cleethorpes service at Lincoln.

It’s small service enhancements like this that cost nothing yet add so much value. Well done LNER.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2026 ==

Skipping Banbury also will improve ticket revenue due to Banbury being a common splitting point (historically the boundary of Network SouthEast, and no doubt there will be some XC staff who will take no prisoners if someone boards one of those trains with a Banbury split when it doesn't stop at Banbury).

I never thought of the split ticketing side of things. That makes perfect sense from a business point of view.

 

[Watershed]

My question though is: they stopped the trains at Banbury pre-Covid, why can they not now? Is the railway really more congested than pre-Covid?

As mentioned previously in this thread, they have stopped running those services for so long that freight services have now "stolen" their original path. The new paths do not allow for a stop at Banbury (without an unacceptable journey time increase, I presume).

I do find it questionable that such practices are allowed - yes, "use it or lose it" makes sense on a congested network, but ultimately the railway primarily exists because of passenger traffic. I don't think the average taxpayer would exactly be pleased if they knew that the heavily subsidised railway is putting profit-making freight operators ahead of local passengers' interests.

 

[The Planner]

As mentioned previously in this thread, they have stopped running those services for so long that freight services have now "stolen" their original path. The new paths do not allow for a stop at Banbury (without an unacceptable journey time increase, I presume).

I do find it questionable that such practices are allowed - yes, "use it or lose it" makes sense on a congested network, but ultimately the railway primarily exists because of passenger traffic. I don't think the average taxpayer would exactly be pleased if they knew that the heavily subsidised railway is putting profit-making freight operators ahead of local passengers' interests.

Network Code allows for it though via Part J, freight are subject to it more than anyone.

 

[fishwomp]

[on Banbury] I never thought of the split ticketing side of things. That makes perfect sense from a business point of view.

Except we don't know the 'orcats' impact (ie. shared revenue) as the trains that no longer stop at Banbury won't be apportioned any revenue for Banbury to Leamington or Birmingham, nor Oxford - Banbury. Isn't the real answer pathing and timetable resiliency? Cross-country were never known for punctuality - and if skipping every station would allow better performance, ...

Overcrowding (as they half-stated) is a very poor excuse for not calling. There have been way too many times a service has gotten later in my experience at _Banbury_ (not just Oxford as mentioned above) due to excess dwell from passengers not being able to get on/off quickly. Again, if the train doesn't stop, the passengers can't delay it.

 

[dk1]

Except we don't know the 'orcats' impact (ie. shared revenue) as the trains that no longer stop at Banbury won't be apportioned any revenue for Banbury to Leamington or Birmingham, nor Oxford - Banbury. Isn't the real answer pathing and timetable resiliency? Cross-country were never known for punctuality - and if skipping every station would allow better performance, ...

Overcrowding (as they half-stated) is a very poor excuse for not calling. There have been way too many times a service has gotten later in my experience at _Banbury_ (not just Oxford as mentioned above) due to excess dwell from passengers not being able to get on/off quickly. Again, if the train doesn't stop, the passengers can't delay it.

Under the old privatisation regime I was on the impresign that XC calls were going to be removed at several locations to improve performance and overcrowding where local journeys were impacting that operator.

 

[fishwomp]

Under the old privatisation regime I was on the impresign that XC calls were going to be removed at several locations to improve performance and overcrowding where local journeys were impacting that operator.

Yes, Wakefield Westgate was proposed - and at least mitigated by the addition of the _new_ hourly "Flyer" to Sheffield operated by Northern.

In contrast, there is a 2-hourly stopper from Oxford to Banbury (so total of 1.5 trains per hour on the southern part of the route which is said to be 'too busy' to stop at..), and no additional services on the northern side proposed - but at least Chiltern have that covered with 2 an hour in addition to the other one from XC.