Rail improvements promised as new timetable announced

Timetable changes being introduced from Sunday should "provide more certainty for passengers" after months of issues, the rail industry membership body said.

The changes will see Avanti West Coast (AWC) return to three trains an hour on its London-Manchester route and TransPennine Express (TPE) increase Manchester-Scotland services.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said they would focus on improving "reliability".

However, a business leader said they may not boost operators' performances.

The changes will be made on AWC, TPE and Northern services serving many parts of the north of England.

Alongside improving the number of services linking the region to the capital and Scotland, they will also see TPE extend the Cleethorpes-Manchester service to and from Liverpool and AWC offer more direct services between London and North Wales via Chester.

However, there have been concerns that the failure to resolve staffing issues will mean the cancellation of thousands of trains in recent months will continue.

Many rail workers are still refusing to volunteer for shifts on their rest days amid long-running industrial relations disputes and there is a backlog with training new staff due to the coronavirus pandemic.

An RDG representative said the new timetable was "an opportunity to provide more certainty for passengers with a focus on improving punctuality and reliability".

"This will also be a chance for operators to introduce more trains and to make existing services much more robust for passengers," they added.

TPE's customer service and operations director Kathryn O'Brien said the changes were "designed to give our customers improved connectivity".

"We have had to make some adjustments to existing services and we need all customers to make themselves familiar with the timetables and to check carefully before travelling," she added.

AWC is planning a 40% increase in services, putting on 264 services a day, after it cut its schedules in August to limit short-notice cancellations.

Northern said its changes were partly aimed at improving the reliability of trains in Manchester and spacing them out more regularly, but warned passengers that "a small number of trains" may be temporarily cancelled up to 48 hours before the scheduled day as it "adjusts our resources to the new timetable".

However, Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison said he was concerned the new timetables, which change every May and December, would not lead to improved performance.

He said a "rest-day working agreement" had been needed by last Friday to speed up the training process for new drivers, which was "the root cause of this chaos on our railways".

Having missed that deadline, he said TPE "will not have enough fully-trained drivers ready when the timetable change comes into effect... meaning we're likely to see continued disruption".

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin said she had been "pushing operators and government to reinstate rail services that provide a lifeline to so many people" as post-pandemic demand for rail travel had "recovered more quickly in the North" than elsewhere.

"The revised timetable must deliver a more reliable service for passengers because our communities need a network that they can rely on to get to work, school or college."

Strikes by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are expected to reduce the number of services on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it was a "tragedy" that Avanti West Coast passengers were "not going to see the benefit" of its new timetable when the walkout happened.

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