Rail Delivery Group (RDG) has announced that it and the rail industry has reviewed its plans for the winter timetable change, this comes after parts of the country have faced severe disruption following the May timetable change.

The aim of this is to ensure that passengers get a much more reliable service.

Every year, train operators in the UK introduce new timetables twice a year, in May and December, to allow themselves to adapt to seasonal variations and enable new services to be introduced following track upgrades etc.

The timetable change in May 2018 was the largest in recent history. As a result, the December 2018 change will be a much smaller scale, like the ones in most recent years.

Most parts of the country will see timetable changes in December, however, an approach by Rail Delivery Group, supported by Network Rail and train operating companies, will see some parts of the country stick with the May timetable.

The government has accepted this approach.

What Train Operating Companies are introducing new timetables?

What did the officials say?

Sir Peter Hendy, Chair, Network Rail, said:

“The railway industry has taken a long hard look at its plans for the next timetable change in December and, taking into account recent painful lessons, the industry has scaled back its ambition and tempered it with a more cautious, phased approach to introducing the new timetable.

“While there will still be new services introduced this December, other new services will now be introduced more gradually over the next few timetable changes to help smooth their introduction and maintain a reliable service for passengers and businesses alike.

“The railway is too vital for the health and wealth of our country to risk a repeat of the mistakes of May and this more balanced approach of ambition and caution is absolutely the right thing to do for the millions who rely on our railway everyday.”

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said:

“In parts of the country, many people have suffered unacceptable disruption following the introduction of the new timetable in May for which we are sincerely sorry. The industry is determined to learn the lessons from what went wrong. After careful consideration, Network Rail and train operators are acting now to make sure people get a reliable service when the December timetable is introduced, which means some improvements will be delivered more slowly than originally planned.

“As part of our long-term plan to change and improve, we will still be introducing thousands of new carriages and delivering a 10 per cent increase in the number of trains running. Our ambition to deliver a once-in-a-generation step change in the quality of rail services is right but reliability for customers must come first and that’s what today’s announcement aims to ensure.”

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