Major changes are planned to rail timetables in May and June 2018.
Northern Rail
Northern customers are being urged to check their train times and station stops ahead of Britain’s biggest train timetable change for decades
They are asking customers to check before travelling and to plan their journeys before the timetable change on 20 May.
As part of the new timetable, departure times and the Manchester stations where some services travel to and from across the Pennines will change. Our customers are being asked to take note of the changes to the services and think about their onward journey whether on foot, by tram or on the bus.
Train timetables change every May and December to give operators the chance to improve services, change station stops and, where necessary, amend running times.
May 2018 is the biggest change to timetables in decades and, unfortunately, there has been a delay in processing Northern’s timetables into industry systems. This delay means that our timetables will not be available to download from this website until Monday 7 May, with printed versions available from 1 June.
Timetables are available to view now at Northern Rail website
TransPennine Express
From Sunday 20th May 2018 they will be introducing major timetable changes for train services across the North of England and Scotland, which are designed to improve connectivity, create new journey opportunities and deliver enhanced reliability.
As well as the promise of a better service for our customers, these changes will pave the way for the introduction of their new Nova fleet of trains, starting with Nova 3 later this year.
You’ll find a quick summary of all the improvements here, but please make sure you plan ahead and check travel updates before you set off.
Key changes from Sunday 20 May
• Journeys between Manchester (Victoria) and Liverpool Lime Street will take just 35 minutes (compared to the current 52 minutes via Warrington Central) when we begin operating both our services on the route between Manchester and Liverpool via Newton-le-Willows and Lea Green
• An increase to two fast services every hour between Newcastle and Manchester calling at York, Leeds and Huddersfield (with the majority also calling at Durham)
• There will now be six trains an hour across the Pennines between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester.
From 20th May, two of these services each hour will begin calling at intermediate stations between Manchester and Leeds (previously served by Northern services), providing these communities with direct services to Leeds and Manchester without the need to change trains at Huddersfield.
• New hourly evening services between Hull and Manchester
• More services on Sundays from Middlesbrough and Hull
• Earlier and later services on weekdays from Scarborough and Middlesbrough
• Services to and from Scotland will run non stop between Preston and Manchester Piccadilly and will no longer call at Wigan North Western or Manchester Oxford Road
• Services will no longer operate on the route via Birchwood, Warrington Central or Liverpool South Parkway
Our new timetables are available to download here
Merseyrail announces new Northern Line timetables from June
New timetables for all Merseyrail Northern line services will be launched on 2nd June 2018 ready for the opening of the new Maghull North station.
A 15 minute frequency will continue to run on all lines, however the calling times at stations will change. The new timetable has been launched to coincide with the start of the Lime Street upgrade for passenger convenience, including those connecting on to the Merseyrail network from mainline services at Liverpool South Parkway.
Services on the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines will run to the new timetable from 2nd June. Services on the Southport and Hunts Cross line will run to a temporary timetable between 2nd June and 29th July while the Lime Street upgrade works take place, with the new Northern line timetable coming in to effect permanently from 30th July.
The introduction of a new station on the Ormskirk line will slightly increase journey times by 4
minutes from Ormskirk to Liverpool and by 1 minute from Liverpool to Ormskirk. All Northern line timetables will change as the extended journey time will affect other trains running in to Liverpool city centre.
Trains will not call at Maghull North until the station opens on 18th June and trains will instead be held at Town Green station for a few minutes from 2nd June so that services on the rest of the line run to the new timetable.
Wirral line passengers are advised that there will be changes to both the Chester and Ellesmere Port line timetables between 2nd June – 29th July while the Lime Street upgrade works take place.
The new timetable is available online at merseyrail.org and timetable booklets are available at stations.
