NRT: generally a welcome improvement

In most cases it makes for easy usage, but it is unhelpful to be told Clapham Junction appears in 25 tables, without any way of knowing which one you want. This will be even more pertinent if maps are withdrawn altogether.

The Commercial Pages have also been withdrawn, so there is no longer any detail on how to use the timetable, how to contact operators, how to cross London or walking times between groups of stations. Some of this was not only useful but fairly static – that is, it wouldn’t have taken up much time for the team to update each edition.

Finally, there is no longer any reference to Transport Focus or London TravelWatch. This file had always appeared in NRTs over the years under the heading ‘Passenger Representation’.

One thing that is not needed, though, is the line at the foot of every page that says: ‘Please refer to separate Notes Section for all Table Notes that are specific to a particular NRT edition.’ It means little to me. There is a ‘Table Notes’ file but it says virtually nothing specific other than a few operating dates for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway!

I do, however, like the fact that tables are all now three-digit, all contain ‘T’ for table and have ‘F’ added for the outward pages.

So table 26 used to appear as Table 26 northbound and Table 26R southbound, but now appears at Table T026-F and Table T026-R. It’s interesting to ponder why the ‘F’ is needed! Certainly when I was working with the team under its last editor, she said the ‘R’ was being added to show ‘Reverse’ as a lot of people had asked for some reference in long tables to ascertain immediately whether the other direction was earlier or later.

To seasoned users that wasn’t needed in ex-London tables where ‘Down’ comes before ‘Up’, but it helps in others. So does ‘F’ mean ‘Forward’? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter much, because at least it’s consistent.

So all-in-all it’s a far better edition and all it needs is time spent on the ‘front end’ presentation. However, will this all be spoiled by an implementation of the original policy of removing so much useful information? I suggest this version shows it isn’t necessary to do that, so let’s hope it remains as it is now.

General

In what follows, unless stated, times are for Monday to Friday, and I am comparing the new NRT with the May 2016 edition.

I use the following abbreviations: First TransPennine Express (TPE); Great Western Railway (GWR); High Speed Train (HST); South West Trains (SWT).

Table 1

I gather table 1 has the new c2c timetable, which took effect from January 9. However, it is not dated so anybody using it before then would have known.  The reason for the delay was that not all the new trains needed to run the service were available until then. I am told c2c made this clear to users some months ago, so the NRT should have shown the start date.

The changes relate to peak trains, with a redistribution of intermediate calls. More trains omit Barking and some longer non-stop runs have been introduced such as West Ham to Benfleet and West Ham to Chalkwell.

Tables 26, 39 & 48

Once again catering remains incorrect on Virgin Trains East Coast services. They all offer hot food in First Class and so simply require the ‘knife & fork in a box’ symbol, but all are shown as having only a trolley.

The only trains showing the correct offering are Hull Trains, giving the impression they alone offer hot food.

What is pertinent is that Virgin Trains West Coast on table 65 show the correct symbols, so why is East Coast not bothering?

There are several new services on the East Coast Main Line. A later service from King’s Cross to York leaves 2257, arriving 0130 and, on Fridays only, there’s a new addition in the form of a 2201 Edinburgh-Newcastle (arr 2356).

On Saturdays many gaps were filled between King’s Cross and Leeds, taking the total number of trains from 19 to 23 northbound (20 to 24 southbound).

On Sundays an 0845 King’s Cross-Edinburgh and 1120 and 1447 return were new, together with some new Leeds services.

These have quite an effect on Alnmouth and Morpeth (table 48). What used to be a Cinderella service at Alnmouth has in recent years grown to be an excellent one, both for commuters and casual users. It is now almost hourly, all day, with even more added under the new timetable.

The 1830 Edinburgh-King’s Cross now calls at 1939, while a new Fridays-only service at 2201 from Edinburgh to Newcastle calls at 2310.

Northbound the 1330 and 1730 from King’s Cross call at 1710 and 2058 respectively. This means Alnmouth now has seven northbound (eight Fridays, six Sundays) and nine southbound services (five Sundays) to/from King’s Cross, the fastest of which averages 90mph, despite having four intermediate stops.

Commuting to Newcastle is also spectacular, with five arrivals by 0832 and five departures home between 1637 and 1844, with some averaging 91mph for the 35 miles.

Next, bear in mind the weekly season is a mere £51.50 (or £79 First Class). On a good day on Southern (do they exist?), a roughly the same distance Victoria-Haywards Heath averages 54mph and costs £106.20 for a Standard weekly! And isn’t Alnwick a more pleasant place to live too?

Similarly, Morpeth now has an improved service, with new calls at 1515 and 1956 in the 1400 and 1830 Edinburgh-King’s Cross respectively, and at 2327 in the 2201(FO) Edinburgh-Newcastle.

There are also calls at 1233 and 1732 on Sundays in the 1120 and 1620 Edinburgh-King’s Cross respectively.

Northbound the 0930 and 1330 King’s Cross-Edinburgh now call at 1256 and 1656 respectively, while on Sundays the 1037 York-Edinburgh calls at 1154. This now gives Morpeth a reasonable spread of services to/from King’s Cross, with the fastest averaging 92mph with three intermediate stops.

One oddity I have never spotted before is that northbound there is a Leeds departure line underneath York which allows all the TPE departures to the north to be shown. However, southbound, after York the Leeds line is also a departure line and shows nothing, as the ‘d’ rejects all the TPE arrivals! To see these you have to use table 39, which shows the enhanced service from Leeds to Newcastle provided by the extension of some TPE trains from York.