East Midlands Trains - Upcoming changes to our Timetable

24th April 2019

May 2018 saw us make a number of changes to our timetable to support the realisation of the benefits from significant investment in UK rail, notably the £7.

5 billion Thameslink programme. Many of these changes saw us make compromises in our timetable, such as accepting increased journey times on key rush hour services. We agreed with the industry that we would take steps to improve our route connectivity and journey times at the earliest available opportunity, afforded by future timetable changes. From Monday 20th May we'll be introducing some minor alterations to our timetable, as we prepare for much bigger changes on the Midland Main Line from December 2020 when our customers will reap the benefits of the ongoing £1.5 billion Midland Main Line Upgrade programme. Our key priorities have been to put our passengers' views first, factoring in also feedback from our people surrounding operating challenges on the front line. What's changing? From Monday to Friday: 0729 Sheffield to London St Pancras International (The Master Cutler) will now depart Sheffield at 0725 and arrive into London St Pancras at 0927, affording a 10 minute journey time improvement when compared with the current timetable 0633 Leeds to London St Pancras International via Nottingham is re-timed to depart Sheffield after the Master Cutler, which should improve operational performance of both services while also slightly improving the Sheffield to Nottingham journey time on this service. It is very important that we help our customers to understand this change at Sheffield and Chesterfield. 0731 Derby to London St Pancras International is re-timed between Kettering and London and will now follow the Master Cutler in to London, arriving at 0942. This is a return to the December 2017 timetable slot and should free up capacity on board this busy service for Market Harborough, Kettering and Wellingborough passengers. 0756 Nottingham to London St Pancras International (The Robin Hood) is re-timed to depart Nottingham at 0800, affording a 4 minute journey time improvement when compared with the current timetable for all station calls 0753 Derby to Nottingham is re-timed to depart Derby at 0827. Alternative service options are available for Derby, Long Eaton and Beeston passengers which are timed at 0744 and 0809 from Derby. This does however mean there's a bigger gap in services between Attenborough and Nottingham. 1647 London St Pancras International to Sheffield (The Master Cutler) is re-timed to depart London at 1702, affording journey time savings of up to 13 minutes for all stations served while reducing the evening peak service gap from 75 minutes to one hour between services to Sheffield. 1819 London St Pancras International to Sheffield will be formed of an HST, offering much needed extra capacity on this busy service. This will, however, mean a journey time increases for customers using this service. The best options for customers travelling to Sheffield remain the 17.02 and 18.02 services (fewer stops). 2034 London St Pancras International to Nottingham will call additionally at Wellingborough and Kettering, plugging an hour long gap in the service that was brought about in the May 2018 timetable. 2308 London St Pancras International to Derby will be formed of a Meridian train instead of the current HST formation. This will assist our staff with the operation of this busy service which is frequently diverted to stop at shorter length platforms as a result of late night engineering work.