Northern introduces new North East services as part of May timetable switch

From 20 May Northern will begin operating additional weekday evening services on the Durham coast and between Morpeth and Metro Centre.

There will also be a later Friday evening service between Middlesbrough and Whitby, whilst our commitment to run hourly services between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn will continue.

The enhanced services form part of Northern’s May timetable change, which is paving the way for future improvements and getting the network ready for the arrival of Northern’s fully refurbished trains.

Unfortunately, due to the knock on effects of delays in the delivery of infrastructure work between Manchester and Preston, it has been necessary to postpone some of the improvements Northern had hoped to deliver.

The extension of Hexham services through to Carlisle has been postponed, whilst there will be a reduced through service between Morpeth and Metro Centre during the middle of the day.

Mike Paterson, Northern’s Regional Director, said: “Whilst we have been able to offer some notable improvements in our May timetable, particularly for customers travelling in the evenings, it’s disappointing that some enhancements are just not possible at the moment.

“Our proposed timetable for May 18 was dependent on the successful delivery by Network Rail of the Manchester to Preston Electrification Project, which has been significantly delayed.

“This means some of the extra services we had intended to start in May, will now be arriving later than planned.”

Mike added: “The delay to some of our service improvements will not, however, delay our overall modernisation plans. By 2020 we will provide 2,000 extra services each week across the Northern network, will have fully refurbished our fleet and removed all Pacers from the line. We are absolutely committed to transforming the journey experience for our customers.”

Northern’s May 2018 service improvements are as follows:

• Morpeth - Newcastle – Metro Centre (additional weekday evening service provision
• Durham Coast (additional weekday evening service provision)
• Bishop Auckland – Darlington – Saltburn (continuation of hourly commitment introduced in Dec 2017)
• Middlesbrough – Nunthorpe – Whitby (minor changes, including later evening Friday service)

The following services will see their improvements deferred:

• Carlisle – Hexham – Newcastle
• Morpeth – Metrocentre services during the day