Northern Rail announces timetable changes

Changes include extending the current Preston to Leeds service through to York and increasing the weekday morning service to and from Lancaster and Morecambe.

There will also be a new weekday morning (8.17am) service from Southport to Manchester Piccadilly via Wigan North Western and a current

weekday morning service (8.24am) from Southport to Leeds will start at Wigan.

David Brown, managing director of Northern, said: “We have taken the opportunity, where possible, to make small improvements to the robustness of the timetable in order to address some of the problems that arose in May. This was because the May timetable was a compromise timetable due to it being entirely re-written and delivered in 16 weeks rather than the normal 40 weeks following delays to Network Rail infrastructure improvements.

“These improvements have in some cases enabled us to provide more journey options for some customers.”

The service enhancements will go hand-in-hand with further modernisation across the Northern network.

In spring 2019, Northern will introduce the first of its brand new trains on the network.