'Levelling down' fears over new rail timetable

There are fears a new rail timetable due to be implemented later this year on the East Coast Main Line will see stations in the north of England lose services.

South East Northumberland Rail Users Group (Senrug) understands the proposals mean Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick in Northumberland, plus Durham and Carlisle, will all see fewer trains.

Its concerns are shared by the Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council Glen Sanderson who has described the proposals as "mad".

Train operators LNER and Northern say the new timetable has yet to be finalised.

Dennis Fancett, Chair of Senrug, said: “We’ve been told that as far as Morpeth and Alnmouth are concerned, there are no substantive changes to the disastrous proposals put forward in 2021.

"This means Morpeth will lose all its off-peak LNER services and local services from Northern will terminate at Newcastle instead of running on to Hexham and Carlisle.

"This is a levelling down proposition that puts the interests of big cities such as London and Edinburgh above the needs of mid-sized market towns," he added.

The government is thought to be keen to improve journey times between London, Newcastle and Edinburgh, which would be helped by reducing the number of stops each train makes.

Mr Sanderson said the delay in letting people know of timetable changes is "annoying".

"It's incredibly disappointing at a time when we are investing huge sums of money in the new Northumberland line to see this happen, just to shave a minute or two off a journey to London.

"It's absolutely the wrong thing to be doing."

Sunderland City Council’s Graeme Miller claimed the North East was being “disregarded” and called the potential timetable shakeup “disgraceful.”

In a statement Northern Trains, which runs services to Carlisle, said: "We are still in the process of finalising the December timetable."

LNER added: "The industry is working together on the proposals and will provide further updates in due course."

Minister for Transport Huw Merriman, on a visit to Northumberland last month, said the priority was "expansion" of the East Coast Main Line.

"If you consider we're bringing additional drivers to train, and additional services, that shows the direction of travel," he said.

"We're going to expand the East Coast Main Line and invest more money into it."

Additional reporting by Daniel Holland, Local Democracy Reporting Service

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