14/12/2008

• New timetable, faster journey times, new services and more seats
• Some of biggest improvements to rail services in nearly a decade

East Midlands Trains, part of Stagecoach Group, today (14 December 2008) launched a new improved timetable, bringing some of the biggest improvements to rail services for passengers in nearly a decade.

Customers will benefit from more trains on key routes, faster journey times, better connections and a more regular service across the whole network.

Highlights of the improvements are:

• Faster journey times to London
  Passengers from Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Leicester and Market Harborough will see significant improvements in journey times to London with current journey times being slashed by between 10 and 15 minutes.
   
• More available seats to London
  By better use of its fleet the company will be able to offer more seats to London where they are most needed. Nottingham, Market Harborough, Kettering and Wellingborough will all see a rise in the number of seats provided by between 700 and 2,000 more seats every weekday.
   
• Sunday services on the Robin Hood Line for the first time since the 1960s
  Today, for the first time since the 1960s, trains will run on the Robin Hood Line, offering a direct link between Mansfield, Nottingham and Worksop.
   
• New services linking Derby and Nottingham with Matlock and the Peak District
  Tomorrow sees East Midlands Trains doubling the number of services it runs between Derby and Matlock improving the service to hourly. In addition all services will run through to Nottingham. Not only will this provide a much improved level of service for commuters, it will also link cities and towns in the region with the Peak District, helping to stimulate tourism in Derbyshire.
   
• More trains between Nottingham and Derby
  The new Derby/Nottingham – Matlock service will see an increase in the number of trains between the two cities.
   
• Later trains
  Our new timetable will see us providing later trains on routes from London, Nottingham and Leicester. Offering more opportunities for night owls to spend a night on the tiles!
   
• The first direct service from Lincoln to London
  From tomorrow morning this brand new service will provide a direct train between Lincoln and London on weekdays and Saturdays. It will leave Lincoln at 07.08, arriving into the capital at 10.00, and return at 18.30, arriving back into Lincoln at 21.24. This service will also call at Collingham and Newark.
   

Tim Shoveller, Managing Director of East Midlands Trains, said: "It's a proud day for us all at East Midlands Trains. Since the launch of our company we have all been working towards delivering this new timetable. Today sees the dawn of a brand new era for everyone who travels with us.

"I believe this timetable is essential in helping East Midlands Trains continue to grow. It provides us with more opportunities and increased capacity on our route, enabling us to encourage more people to make rail their first choice for travel and in turn allowing us to reinvest in the railway. During our franchise we are pumping around £90m on fleet, depots and stations. Our new timetable will be pivotal to these improvements."

Copies of the new timetable are available at East Midlands Trains' stations and on the website, eastmidlandstrains.co.uk. Passengers can also register to receive their own personalised timetable by visiting eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/myjourneys

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact the East Midlands Trains Press Office on
01332 262010.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. East Midlands Trains operate high speed long distance services from London St. Pancras to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham and regional services between Nottingham and Derby – Lincoln – Cleethorpes – Skegness, and between Derby and Crewe - Matlock and Norwich and Liverpool.
2. The franchise will run until 31 March 2015, the last year and four months of which will be conditional upon achieving pre-set performance targets.
3. Highlights of improvements include faster journey times from Sheffield and Leicester to London from 2008, better performance, more seats, train refurbishment, investment at Derby's Etches Park train maintenance depot, a centralised information and security centre, more car parking spaces and two new stations – at East Midlands Parkway and Corby.
4. Stagecoach Group is a leading international transportation group, with extensive bus and rail operations in the UK and North America. Stagecoach operates South West Trains the UK's biggest commuter rail network with nearly 1,700 trains a day out of London Waterloo. In addition, Stagecoach has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group.