Friday, 3 July 2020
- Further timetable enhancement will be introduced on Monday 6th July
- Part of national efforts to provide more capacity as lockdown restrictions continue to be eased
- Customers are still required to wear a face-covering while travelling
- East Midlands Railway will be reintroducing a number of train services and providing additional seats on existing services from Monday 6th July.
This is part of a step up in rail services across the country as more people are able to return to work alongside the easement of restrictions for numerous industries and businesses.
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, EMR has been carefully monitoring the number of customers travelling across the network in order to provide the best possible service. In May, EMR stepped up its timetable by 20% - to provide over 80% of the normal daily timetable.
This further step-up is a targeted increase to provide additional services and capacity where it is required and possible to do so. EMR will continue to monitor customer numbers and keep this new timetable under review.
The new timetable does not mean any changes to the requirement for customers to wear face coverings while travelling. Face coverings continue to be mandatory for customers and must be worn. Children under the age of 11 and people with a disability or illness which means they cannot wear a face covering are exempt.
EMR will continue to offer additional support and guidance to customers before and during their journey to support social distancing in line with official Government advice. This includes additional signage, online support and wayfinding in stations and on trains. Customers are also reminded to continue to follow Government advice and avoid public transport where possible and to only travel by train if you need to do so.
For more information on EMR's efforts to help everyone travel safely, please visit: https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/covid-19
Will Rogers, Managing Director, East Midlands Railway, said:
"We are pleased we can reintroduce more of our services from Monday 6th July.
"With the further easement of social restrictions and the reopening of more leisure and retail businesses we expect customers number to continue to slowly rise. Therefore, it makes sense to introduce more services and more seats ahead of the expected increase in customers.
"We simply ask customers to ensure they bring a face covering with them as they will remain mandatory on public transport alongside this increase in services and follow Government on the use of public transport."
Intercity
The following services will be added:
- 0600 Sheffield to London St Pancras (arriving 0827)
- 2105 London St Pancras to Nottingham (arriving 2254)
The addition of this morning service means that EMR will be operating 13 out of 14 of its morning peak time arrivals into London St Pancras.
EMR Regional
The 6th July plan will broadly be a continuation of the current timetable with an hourly service running on all routes, or the normal frequency where this is less than hourly. However, there will be a small number of exceptions to this where this is not possible.
The following services will be reintroduced:
- 0635 Nottingham to Liverpool Lime Street (arriving 0928)
- 0951 Liverpool Lime Street to Nottingham (arriving 1229)
- 0752 Nottingham to Norwich will start back from Mansfield Woodhouse at 0707, restoring a missing peak time service on the Robin Hood Line
- 0738 & 0838 Worksop to Nottingham (arriving 0844 & 0944 respectively) will each have an additional carriage (taking them to 3-car)
- All off-peak Robin Hood Line services strengthened to 3-carriages