A task force approach, similar to that taken in the North West of England, is planned to resolve challenges with the new East Coast main line timetable.
A recast of the ECML timetable has been in the offing for a number of years, but plans to implement this change in December 2024 were recently shelved due to concerns about performance (p10, May issue). The headline change is for LNER to introduce a third service each hour between London and Newcastle, allowing it to accelerate some Edinburgh services. However, at the key go/no-go decision point for December implementation earlier this year there were still outstanding issues, particularly regarding conflicts with freight paths.
GB Railfreight CEO John Smith told Modern Railways the putative timetable presented to the company omitted the Coca-Cola train from Wakefield. This is a long train that can be difficult to path…
