There are some timetable improvements coming in December to lighten the gloom, reports JAMES ABBOTT
Covid has dominated the timetable planning year: at first, services were kept up for key workers, then there was some pruning to reflect decreased demand. Things settled down in the summer with the number of seats provided usually well in excess of the number required, in order to allow social distancing. Now it is all up in the air, with whispers that December will see pruning again in the light of the number of local lockdowns in place and consequent reduced travel.
In this strange year, our usual seasonal timetable review is more tentative than normal. Most train operating companies (TOCs) are planning little change to the schedules in place in September, but last-minute changes cannot be ruled out.
Pride of place this year goes to MTR Elizabeth line, which has gone so far as to put on more services than it had pre-Covid. The full timetable was restored on 4 July, but it included one service not there in March: the 06.36 Chadwell Heath to Liverpool Street, which presses into service a unit on an empty stock run in the former timetable. This TOC has seen more patronage in the summer’s unusual circumst…
