Rail timetable changes on the East Coast Main Line postponed

Rail leaders had planned to introduce a new timetable for London to Edinburgh services, with £4bn announced in the Spring Budget to improve services.

But doubts were raised about the government’s ability to deliver the changes.

Network Rail’s director of network performance, Chris Curtis, said: “Following lessons learned from introducing major new timetables, the industry steering group that oversees timetable introduction has concluded that there are too many outstanding issues to have confidence that the new East Coast Main Line timetable can be delivered robustly in December.

"We are all committed to working urgently together to find a way to deliver the benefits to passengers and freight users as soon as we can.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “The need to defer the planned upgrade is not related to funding given we have invested £4bn in infrastructure and new trains on this very route, but it is ultimately for industry to deliver timetable upgrades.

"While we're disappointed with the need to defer the full planned upgrade, we expect all industry partners to continue working on improvements as we seek to bolster transport more widely across the region - including by reopening the Northumberland Line and redirecting HS2 funding to benefit more people in more places, more quickly."

North East mayoral candidate Kim McGuinness, Labour, has now urged the Government to work with the north on a new plan for capacity improvements.

She said: “Fourteen years of under-investment in the North East rail network have now come home to roost.

“It feels like every month we see a new railway failing from this Government. We have seen High Speed Rail – a new railway line to solve our capacity issues – scrapped.

“We’ve seen plans to reopen the Leamside line in Durham – helping us keep services going – announced and scrapped within 24 hours.

“Now, just a month after the budget promised railway investment, we’ve been warned the proposed changes would lead to cancellations and delays.

“We always had concerns about the changes, they took away rather than added to the services, but now we are left with no changes at all and no increase in capacity.

“This Government has no plan for the railways, we urgently need change.”

Concerns had been raised locally about the potential loss of services, especially in Morpeth and Berwick-upon-Tweed

The final timetable was not confirmed but a draft proposal indicated a reduced number of services each week stopping at the county’s stations, in both the Edinburgh and London directions.

Members of the Rail North Committee were briefed on the timetable U-turn on Monday.

Transport for the North is set to meet with the Transport Secretary to review the Network Rail concerns.