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West Coast in detail: The new timetable will be introduced on Sunday 14th December 2008 and delivers a 30%+ increase in services - over 1,000 new services each week - and up to a 30% cut in journey times. Highlights of the new services include: • Three Virgin trains per hour to Birmingham (two now) • Three Virgin trains per hour to Manchester (two now) • 50% increase in Sunday services, with the number of weekend services closely resembling today's weekday service • New London Midland services to Liverpool, London and towns up and down the west coast route • Big cut in journey times including: Before project New timetable Minutes saved Birmingham New Street 1hr 43 1hr 12 31 mins Manchester 2hr 41 1 hr 58 43 mins Liverpool 2hr 53 2hr 01 52 mins Glasgow 5hr 06 4hr 10 56 mins Lessons learned: Following the overrun at Rugby in January 2008, Network Rail rewrote the rule book for carrying out major pieces of work. This has enabled us to successfully deliver the final £750m of complex work on the West Coast while keeping the railway running where possible. Improvements to processes include: • More detailed, earlier planning and risk reviews • Rigorous analysis of critical resources and manpower • Military style command posts set up to control and oversee the work Start-up timetable: The new timetable will be introduced on Sunday 14th December 2008 with over 1,000 new services per week running. A further 120 services will be added in stages during January, with the last tranche introduced on 26 January. This phasing will help to deliver a smooth introduction of the new timetable and work out through the teething problems with minimal disruption - learning lessons from other recent major infrastructure start-ups. Other work on the West Coast: Although work to deliver the new timetable was delivered on time, it is important that investment continues. Other standard renewals and some additional line-speed and capacity enhancements will continue into 2009. The size and scale of this work bares no comparison to the project work that has been undertaken over the past few years and fits into the standard maintenance and track possessions programme already agreed with the operators along the route. What the new national timetable delivers for passengers: 1. Four new stations will be opened during the currency of the new timetable. Aylesbury Vale Parkway, (Buckinghamshire) will be opened by Chiltern Railways on December 14th, while Corby (Northants), East Midlands Parkway (near East Midlands Airport) in Nottinghamshire and Laurencekirk (Aberdeenshire) are due to open early in the new year. 2. Eight additional towns and cities will have direct through trains to London, for the first time for a number of years: Alsager (Cheshire), Atherstone (Warwickshire), Corby (Northants), Ivybridge (Devon), Lincoln, together with Rugeley, Stone and Kidsgrove in Staffordshire. 3. Passenger train kilometres run on the National Rail network are 20% higher than ten years ago, and 55% more than in 1979. 5. A summary of the principal improvements in the new timetable are: London – West Midlands/North West/Scotland/North Wales: • Manchester will have trains every 20 minutes to London throughout the day (Virgin Trains). Fastest journey time 1hr 58min. • Birmingham will have trains every 20 minutes to London throughout the day (Virgin Trains). Fastest journey time 1hr 12min. • A service between Birmingham New Street and London Euston via Northampton will be reintroduced by London Midland • An hourly service between Chester and London Euston will be introduced from January 26th (Virgin Trains) • Lichfield, Tamworth and other stations in the Trent Valley will have a direct hourly service to London for the first time (London Midland) • Wrexham will have a through service to London via Chester (Virgin Trains), while the services via Shrewsbury run by Wrexham & Shropshire will be accelerated by half an hour. North West/North Wales: • A new fast through service will run each day between Holyhead and Cardiff (Arriva Trains Wales). • Through services will be run from North and Mid Wales to Birmingham International (for Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre) by Arriva Trains Wales. • Frequency of trains between Liverpool and Birmingham will double to half hourly. (London Midland) • Faster First Transpennine Express (FTPE) services between Manchester Airport and Blackpool, with the opening of a third platform at Manchester Airport. Additional Northern trains will run between Manchester Victoria and Blackpool. • Two additional FTPE services between Manchester and Edinburgh with faster journey times. West Midlands (London Midland): • Services between Birmingham, Hednesford and Rugeley doubled to half hourly. • Hereford to Birmingham will have an hourly service for the first time. East Midlands: • The core service from London St Pancras International increases from four to five trains an hour throughout the day. East Midlands Trains will offer faster journeys to London from Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Leicester and Market Harborough. • A new through service from Lincoln to London St Pancras International is being introduced by East Midlands Trains. • Leeds – Sheffield – Nottingham. A new through hourly service will be introduced by Northern. • Matlock services to Derby will be increased to run hourly and will be extended to run to and from Nottingham (East Midlands Trains). • Mansfield to Nottingham (the Robin Hood line) will have Sunday services (provided by East Midlands Trains), for the first time since the 1960’s. Scotland (First ScotRail): • Additional Edinburgh – Dundee trains with acceleration of Edinburgh – Aberdeen trains by ten minutes. • Additional trains will run between Inverness and Wick, and Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh, a service increase of one third on the farthest north rail routes in Britain. South West England (First Great Western): • Additional trains on the Devon and Cornwall branches. • Barnstaple will have an hourly service from Exeter for the first time. South London, Sussex, South Coast (Southern): • Faster peak trains between Brighton and London with Gatwick Express services being extended to start from Brighton. • East Croydon will be linked directly with Milton Keynes by a new service, replacing the current Brighton – Watford Junction service. This new service will serve the new station at Shepherds Bush (for the Westfield shopping centre). • More frequent and faster trains will run on the Arun Valley line, offering the fastest ever journey time between London and Chichester.