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December Timetable Change

It's all change for some routes from December 15th. Here's our guide to what's going on.
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On December 15th, 2024, the twice-annual timetable change will take place. Here’s what to expect during the December Timetable Change this year.

What’s happening during the December Timetable Change?

Here’s our summary of what’s happening with each operator during the December Timetable Change. As passenger numbers have continued to rise, many operators are starting to increase their services back to pre-pandemic levels.

Avanti West Coast

Thanks to the launch of the new Evero trains, there’ll be more services added from the December Timetable Change.

For much of the day, you’ll find three trains per hour between Birmingham and London. This means that trains which run between Edinburgh/Glasgow and London Euston (via Birmingham) will be sped up and an additional slower service will serve stations between Coventry and London. 

There’ll also be more trains between Liverpool and London, meaning that you can expect two trains per hour at the busiest times of day.

Finally, the 07:00 Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston will be re-introduced on weekdays. This train stops only at Stockport (to pick up) and reaches London at 08:59.

c2c

We are awaiting information from c2c on any timetable changes due to take place.

Chiltern Railways 

There will be a small number of changes from the December Timetable Change on weekdays:

  • 05:57 Bicester Village to Oxford now departs at 06:03
  • 16:04 Banbury to London Marylebone no longer calls at Saunderton, but stops additionally at Beaconsfield
  • 16:19 Oxford to London Marylebone no longer calls at Beaconsfield, but stops additionally at Saunderton
  • 17:45 London Marylebone to Oxford calls additionally at Saunderton (instead of the 18:15, which no longer stops here)
  • 23:07 London Marylebone to Birmingham now has three carriages (instead of two)

On Saturdays, the 22:21 Birmingham Moor Street to Banbury will have five carriages (instead of two).

CrossCountry 

From the December 2024 timetable change, services operated by Class 170 Turbostar trains will no longer have seat reservations or First Class accommodation advertised. These routes are:

  • Birmingham New Street to Leicester/Stansted Airport
  • Nottingham to Birmingham New Street/Cardiff Central.

Additionally, one train per day (in each direction) to/from Cardiff will now run to/from Edinburgh on weekdays. These will be the 09:45 from Cardiff Central and the 13:07 from Edinburgh. This particular pair of services will use Voyager trains, so will be the sole service each day to/from Cardiff to have reservations and First Class.

East Midlands Railway 

Minor changes will be made to some services. Notably, a full hourly service has been restored to the Crewe to Derby route.

You can check each timetable on the East Midlands Railway website.

Elizabeth Line 

No significant changes are planned to the Elizabeth Line timetable.

Great Northern 

The following additional weekday trains will be added to the timetable as of the December Timetable Change:

  • 07:17, 07:45, 08:17 Letchworth to London King’s Cross (calling at Hitchin, Knebworth, Welwyn North)
  • 17:24, 17:54, 18:24 London King’s Cross to Letchworth (calling at Welwyn North, Knebworth, Hitchin)
  • 07:34 Peterborough to London King’s Cross (calling at Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade, Stevenage)
  • 16:42 London King’s Cross to Peterborough (calling at Stevenage, Biggleswade, St Neots, Huntingdon).

Great Western Railway 

Minor changes will be made to some services. You can check each timetable on the Great Western Railway website.

Greater Anglia 

Minor changes will be made to some services. You can check each timetable on the Greater Anglia website.

Hull Trains 

There are no major changes scheduled for the December Timetable Change.

LNER

As a result of changes to other operators’ services, LNER will now run more trains between Newcastle and York on weekdays. They’ll serve Northallerton, to compensate for the reduction in TransPennine Express services to and from this station. They’ll run at these times:

  • From York: 08:07*, 09:07, 11:07, 13:07, 15:07, 17:06, 20:07
  • From Newcastle: 07:43, 09:43, 11:49, 13:45, 15:43, 17:43, 18:44.

The 08:07 service from York starts back from Doncaster at 07:31.

These trains don’t run through to/from London and Edinburgh, so you’ll need to change at York or Newcastle for onward connections.

From the December Timetable Change, the daily services to/from Sunderland, Glasgow Central and Stirling will be removed. These trains will now operate to/from Newcastle, Edinburgh and Edinburgh respectively. There’ll still be a daily stop at Stirling on the Highland Chieftain service to/from Inverness.

London Northwestern Railway 

The following alterations are planned from the December Timetable Change:

  • The Liverpool to Birmingham route will return to two trains per hour on weekdays, all day. The extra train each hour will call additionally at Coseley and Mossley Hill
  • The following additional trains will also run:
    • 06:11 Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street (weekdays)
    • 05:47 Stafford to Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent (weekdays)
    • 09:23 Crewe to Birmingham New Street (Sundays).

Lumo 

There are no major changes scheduled for the December Timetable Change.

Merseyrail 

No changes are planned to the Merseyrail timetable from the December Timetable Change.

Northern

There’ll be a number of changes to Northern services from the December Timetable Change across their network.

The following changes will take place in Yorkshire: 

  • Northern will now partially operate the re-introduced Leeds to Huddersfield (via Dewsbury) stopping service alongside TransPennine Express
  • Following the completion of long-term engineering works, Sunday trains between Leeds and York (via Garforth) will return to normal
  • There will continue to be some changes to services in the Huddersfield area on weekends, due to the TransPennine Route Upgrade.  

You’ll see these changes in the North West: 

  • Most Blackpool North to Manchester Airport trains will return to being six carriages
  • Most Blackpool North to Liverpool trains, and some Hadfield to Manchester trains, will use four-carriage Class 331 trains
  • Salford Central station will be closed for upgrade works between 10 February and 20 April 2025.

Additionally, it’s almost time for another route to be added to the Northern network! It’s expected that the Northumberland Line will be opening in December 2024. Initially, trains will serve new stations at Seaton Delaval, Newsham and Ashington. Other stations at Northumberland Park, Blyth Bebside and Bedlington will follow next year. There’ll be a half-hourly service on Monday to Saturday daytimes, and hourly on Evenings and Sundays.

ScotRail 

New ScotRail timetables are now available. ScotRail has not specified the level of changes taking place, though no major alterations have been advertised.

From 25 January 2025 until May 2025, the East Kilbride Line will be closed and all trains will be replaced by buses. This is to allow electrification and station rebuilding works to take place.

South Western Railway 

The timetable will not significantly change from December. However, the type of train used on some services may change.

Southeastern

From the December Timetable Change, more trains will be added to the timetable. Here are the key highlights:

  • Orpington to London Victoria (via Herne Hill) will return to four trains per hour Off-Peak
  • 12 additional Peak ’rounder’ trains will be introduced on the Greenwich and Sidcup lines, which will run in a loop to/from Cannon Street via these stations
  • Extra trains will run from Slade Green to Cannon Street via Greenwich at 15:29, 15:59 and 16:29
  • Two evening services from Charing Cross to Maidstone East (21:29 and 22:29) will be extended to Ashford on weeknights.

Southern

From the December Timetable Change, there’ll be extra trains to/from London Bridge via Sydenham on weekdays. They’ll stop at all stations between Norwood Junction and London Bridge:

  • 07:37, 08:04 and 09:04 from Norwood Junction
  • 17:10 and 17:40 from London Bridge (continuing towards West Croydon/Sutton).

You’ll also find other additional services across the Southern network on weekdays:

  • 08:40 East Croydon to London Victoria (via Selhurst)
  • 06:57/07:57 London Victoria to East Croydon (via Selhurst)
  • 17:52 London Bridge to Sutton (via Tulse Hill/Hackbridge)
  • 22:07 London Bridge to Uckfield
  • 20:20/21:20 London Victoria to East Grinstead
  • 21:36/22:36 East Grinstead to London Victoria
  • 07:02 Bognor Regis to London Bridge (via Littlehampton and Horsham, Mon-Thu only)
  • 18:03 London Bridge to Bognor Regis (via Horsham and Littlehampton, Mon-Thu only).

There’ll also be timing and routing changes to a small number of other services. You should check the National Rail page for further details.

Stansted Express

No major changes are expected to the timetable.

Thameslink 

There will be some minor timing changes to services to allow for better connections between trains.

TransPennine Express

Following 12 months of a significantly reduced timetable, TransPennine Express will be returning to four fast trains per hour between Leeds and Manchester throughout the day. The usual service pattern each hour will be as follows: 

  • Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street (via Manchester Victoria)
  • Hull to Liverpool Lime Street (via Manchester Victoria)
  • Redcar Central to Manchester Airport (via Manchester Victoria, Oxford Road, Piccadilly)
  • Scarborough to Manchester Victoria.

There will also be some other key changes to TransPennine Express services from the December Timetable Change:

  • The York to Manchester Piccadilly (via Castleford) stopping service will be increased to run hourly throughout the day
  • Most Saltburn to Manchester Airport trains will now start/terminate at Redcar Central. They will however call additionally at Eaglescliffe
  • Most Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street services will no longer call at Northallerton but will now call at Chester-le-Street every hour. Additional LNER trains will run between Newcastle and York (stopping at Northallerton) to compensate for this.
  • Trains to/from Hull will resume running fast between Leeds and Huddersfield
  • The Leeds to Huddersfield (via Dewsbury) stopping train will return and will be operated at alternating hours by either TransPennine Express or Northern.

Transport for Wales

The following alterations will be made as of the December timetable change:

Heart of Wales Line (Swansea – Llandrindod – Shrewsbury) 

Services on this line will be retimed and reduced to four trains per day each day. The late evening Llanelli-Llandovery and Shrewsbury-Llandrindod (and return) services will be removed entirely. As a result, the last trains on this route will be significantly earlier at some stations.

Cardiff to Swansea (Swanline) 

At peak times (Monday to Friday), there’ll be an hourly stopping service on this line. During Off-Peak hours, most services will run through to/from Pembroke Dock. All trains will also call additionally at Pontyclun, Llanharan and Pencoed.

Maesteg Line 

There’ll be an additional later train on Mondays to Saturdays. It’ll leave Cardiff Central at 23:24 on weekdays and 23:15 on Saturdays.

From the December Timetable Change, services will run through to/from Ebbw Vale Town rather than Cheltenham Spa.

Milford Haven & Fishguard Lines
  • An extra two trains per day will run between Carmarthen and Milford Haven (Monday to Saturday)
  • Fishguard services will be retimed so that they run at relatively even intervals throughout the day
  • Some Carmarthen to Cardiff services which duplicate Great Western Railway trains will be removed.
Cambrian Line
  • The 05:07 Machynlleth – Barmouth and 06:45 Barmouth – Machynlleth will be removed
  • The 20:26 Pwllheli – Machynlleth and 21:47 Machynlleth – Pwllheli will not run between December and March
  • The first Shrewsbury – Aberystwyth service will start at Welshpool on a Monday to Saturday and be replaced by a bus on Sundays
  • Some other quieter services on this route may be replaced by a bus until further notice. This is due to stock shortages following the collision between two trains at Talerddig earlier in the year.

West Midlands Railway 

There’ll be a small number of alterations to the West Midlands Railway timetable. Birmingham to Hereford services will be retimed to allow for more consistent departure times each hour. These additional services will also be added to the timetable:

  • 07:23 Worcester Foregate Street – Birmingham New Street (weekdays)
  • 16:20, 18:50 Birmingham New Street – Worcester Foregate Street (weekdays)
  • 06:26, 19:26, 20:26, 21:26 Birmingham New Street – Shrewsbury (weekdays)
  • 18:59, 19:59 Shrewsbury – Birmingham New Street (weekdays)
  • 22:23 Birmingham New Street – Shrewsbury (Saturdays)
  • 09:40 Leamington Spa – Coventry (Sundays).

The 06:24 Worcester Foregate Street – Birmingham New Street (weekdays) will also start back from Great Malvern.

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