East Coast, the Government-owned train company, confirmed yesterday that a timetable overhaul, due to take effect from December, is unlikely to be completed by that deadline and, according to industry sources, could be put back by at least six months.
The delay comes after The Herald revealed in November plans to axe direct trains between London and Glasgow on the East Coast Main Line, with trains from King’s Cross stopping instead at Edinburgh, which sparked a major war of words between Labour and the SNP ahead of the Glasgow North East by-election.
The changes would see a separate company, CrossCountry, taking up the slack by running more trains from Glasgow as far as York before branching away from the main line.
Labour’s Scottish and Westminster MPs, under attack over the plans and desperate to avoid giving the SNP ammunition ahead of a General Election, have been pressing the Department for Transport (DfT) to drop the proposals.
A spokeswoman for East Coast, the firm given responsibility for inter-city east-coast services after a re-nationalisation of the prized route last year, promised a “major consultation” on the changes.
“As part of the emerging timetable, Network Rail has identified train pathing issues with East Coast Glasgow-to-London services which have yet to be resolved,” she said, adding: “The industry is considering the best implementation date to work to for any of these changes and it may be appropriate to allow for longer than the originally planned December 2010 date.”
Tom Harris, the Glasgow Labour MP and former rail minister, due to meet Lord Adonis next week to press the case for retaining the status quo, last night welcomed the postponement.
He said: “I’d rather have the right decision made at a later date than have the wrong one rushed through.
“Lord Adonis is well aware of my concerns and I expect he will be having face-to-face meetings with other MSPs to discuss this. I’m still quite optimistic we will get a good result.”
However, passenger representatives remain equivocal about the proposed changes, insisting only that they are fully consulted.
Guy Dangerfield, the east coast representative of the independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said: “If this delay to the implementation of the timetable allows time for proper consultation with passengers to deliver what they really want, that would be a good thing.
“While we want to examine what passengers actually want, it does appear to us that the pressing need is to link Glasgow effectively with the north-east of England and Yorkshire. It doesn’t therefore matter whither the trains go to after that.”
The Herald understands the proposed timetable changes are still being actively considered by Network Rail. The slippage means the new schedule is unlikely to be implemented until at least May 2011 and could be delayed by up to a year.
Anne McLaughlin, the SNP Glasgow MSP, said: “Despite Labour’s denials it seems plans to scrap the East Coast service to Glasgow are still on the cards. The SNP made clear in no uncertain terms that scrapping the link would damage direct access to Glasgow, cutting a million seats from trains into the city, and we will be continuing to lobby the UK Government to preserve this service.”
A spokesman for the DfT insisted that no decision on the timetable had yet been made and would be subject to public consultation by East Coast.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article