New East Coast
timetable: Latest news
East Coast Main Line Timetable - Stakeholder
Meetings
The East Coast Main Line timetable (covering London -
Newcastle - Alnmouth - Edinburgh and other Scottish destinations) is being
substantially amended from May 2011. This will result in the biggest
timetable change across the 920-mile East Coast Main Line route since the
end of electrification in 1991. Dates have now been set for the
consultation sessions for stakeholders on the new rail timetable
which comes into effect next year. ARUG will be
represented at the stakeholder feedback meetings in both Edinburgh and
Newcastle.
Highlights of the draft timetable
can be viewed here.
:Further information on the May 2011 "Eureka" timetable:
The link to the actual timetable:
Once you have had the time to look into the
consequence of the new timetable there is the opportunity to let East
Coast know what you think about the timetable! This is important if we
want to reverse the negative consequences of the new timetable for
Alnmouth!
For example, the withdrawal of the 16.32 Newcastle -Alnmouth is bad
for regular commuters, including school children. Further, the poor spread
of departures south in the morning are a problem for commuters. There are
several trains before 7.34, but then there is a big gap till 8.58, and
then 11.00. Or you may feel that other important services are missing,
e.g. late night. It only takes a few minutes to fill in the feedback
questionnaire on:
http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/travel-information/Eureka/What-do-you-think/
Please feel free to send any feedback to this e-mail
address or contact us via the ARUG website www.arug.org.uk,
or info@arug.org.uk
Alnmouth Rail User Group urges you to
feed back your opinion to East Coast through the 'Eureka' web pages.
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Alnmouth Station Car
Park
The family in the station cottages have now
moved out. Once a colony of bats had been removed by the appropriate
people (bats are a protected species !), demolition could commence. As you
may have noticed further ground work has started and vegetation has been
removed. Progress seems to be fast.
Did
you know that when you travel return to Newcastle (on the same day) with
Crosscountry both ways, you can get a discounted ticket, either in the
train or at the station?
Ticket barriers are now in place. If you arrive in
Newcastle without having been able to buy a ticket at the station or in
the train, the guard at the barrier should be able to sell you such a
discounted ticket as well.
Find
cheaper rail fares
Did
you know that you can “Find cheaper rail fares” from the Transport
Direct journey-planning website: www.transportdirect.info?
Type in your start and destination points and the times you want to
travel, then wait for the search engine to come up with a range of fares
and their availability. Transport Direct claims to have just recorded the
50 millionth user of its website tools. In a recent survey, 92 per cent of
users said they find the Transport Direct site easy to use; almost half of
users were given a quicker route for a familiar journey. Real time
information on road and rail disruption allows travelers to avoid
unnecessary delays to their journey while extensive maps show the
locations of bus stops and train stations, and also suggest where traffic
congestion may occur. - DfT press release
Amended fares from 02
Jan 2010
Regulated
fares will decrease very slightly (0.4%) from 02 Jan 2010. This % is
linked to the RPI. However not all fares are regulated, and others may
well increase. For example, the Cross Country anytime return to
Newcastle will increase by approx 6.5% from £7.60 to £8.10. National
Rail inquiries or any other on line ticket booking site have details
of the new fares. Worth remembering is that East Coast advance
tickets bought on line get a 10% discount - see www.eastcoast.co.uk
for details.
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Crosscountry
bring refurbished
HSTs on line
Operating
from Glasgow to Plymouth (via ALNMOUTH), CrossCountry’s is introducing
four refurbished High Speed Trains (HSTs) into service this autumn.
The
carriages feature contemporary and modern colour schemes and have been
fitted with new seating and tables, carpets, curtains, refreshed toilet
facilities, enhanced lighting and power sockets throughout. Importantly,
the refurbishment also delivers significantly more space for luggage. The
power cars are fitted with new MTU-built engines to increase reliability,
improve fuel efficiency and produce lower emissions.
CrossCountry
says: “We’re delighted to have our first HST
operating. These trains deliver the extra capacity our passengers and
stakeholders tell us they want, and their introduction also means we’re
on track to deliver our promise of increasing seating by 35 per cent.”
ARUG
says: ”the increased capacity will be most
welcome as will be the new standard of comfort. All we need now is the
extended car park to accommodate the increasing number of passengers”.
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