More than 76,000 extra seats per week on publicly-owned train operators

LNER services on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) account for a huge part of the uplift (60,000 extra seats per week) with Northern and TransPennine Express also having rolled out service enhancements on the line for their passengers.

It has been hailed the biggest timetable change in more than a decade and follows completion of the East Coast Upgrade, part of £4bn worth of investment across the length of the ECML.

Among the East Coast improvements for publicly-owned operators are:

• Improved connectivity between London and Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland with LNER, including reductions in journey times to long-distance services
• Additional LNER services on Sundays between Bradford Forster Square and London King’s Cross
• A new hourly express service with Northern between Leeds and Sheffield, and additional services between Middlesbrough and Newcastle
• Increased TransPennine Express services between Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley moving up to eight trains per day in each direction Monday-Saturday and seven trains in each direction on Sundays.

Meanwhile, c2c has boosted peak-time capacity for its customers by reinstating 12-car trains at Basildon and adding extra stops at Barking. These changes deliver up to 6,500 additional seats each week, thanks to 30 extra services and follows major upgrades to Basildon station.

Greater Anglia has revised train times on the West Anglia route and is operating extra Sunday services to West Runton on the Norwich–Sheringham line. To meet increased demand, some services on the Great Eastern Main Line and between Southend Victoria and London have increased from five to ten carriages.

Southeastern has introduced 29 extra high-speed services between St Pancras and Faversham each week, more evening trains from Charing Cross to Dartford and Maidstone East, and additional off-peak services from London Victoria to Ashford International. To boost comfort and capacity, some key routes are operating with longer trains, such as Hastings services which have increased to 12 carriages, and weekend services between Victoria and Dartford have doubled from four to eight carriages.

Northern is providing around 4,900 extra seats per week, with key changes including the doubling of Sunday services between Newcastle and Morpeth, an hourly link between Carlisle and Middlesbrough via Sunderland and Hartlepool, and enhanced evening services on the Carlisle to Newcastle route.

And the increase in TransPennine Express services between Newcastle and Edinburgh (from five to eight per day) have added a further 2,000 extra seats per week to the publicly-operated timetable and a further 3,500 seats per week come from longer trains operating services between Hull and Liverpool.

Train operators have reminded customers to plan ahead and check journey times before they travel.

There are seven train operators currently in public ownership (c2c, Greater Anglia, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express).

West Midlands Trains, who operate London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway services, is the next operator to move into public ownership on 1 February 2026.