New Leeds-Carlisle timetable starts 20th May

Sunday 20th May marks the first day of the biggest Leeds-Carlisle timetable shakeup in 25 years.  Two extra trains each way on a Sunday bringing the total to six each way, not brilliant but a big step forward from the four each way that we had up until now.  Thanks DfT for specifying this in the franchise and Northern for implementing it on time.

The weekday timetable sees the addition of a 1649 departure from Leeds to plug the 3 1/4 hour gap that we used to have.  Now visitors from the northern end of the line can have a day out in Leeds, Bradford, Saltaire or the Worth Valley and come back at a sensible time.  FoSCL made the case for this extra train to the DfT who put it in the franchise spec.  Thanks to them and congrats to Northern on implementing it 18 months before it was mandatory.

This train returns from Carlisle to Leeds at 2018, a big step forward from the previous last train at 1814.