On Sunday 16th May East Midlands Rail introduced a significant timetable change across
their network. They also made improvements to EMR Regional services, with
new journey opportunities, more seats and additional services.
Will Rogers, managing director at EMR said:
‘We were also the first passenger operator in the country to return to our full ‘pre-Covid’
timetable. This was intended to help support the region’s recovery from the Covid pandemic
and encourage passengers return to the railway.
Sadly, for a variety of reasons the new timetable has not performed as well as we would expect and this has led to
delays and short notice cancellations.
We are very sorry for the disruption and inconvenience our customers have experienced and we
are extremely disappointed the service we have provided has not been up the standards we
would expect.’
Next Steps
‘In order to return our full service, we are carrying out two major pieces of work:
1) Introducing a reduced EMR Regional timetable to ensure a reliable and robust service
operates for passengers – this timetable will very similar to that which operated
successfully for a number of months prior to the 16th May
2) Introduction of an ‘Operational Delivery Improvement Plan’ to fix the underlying issues
and allow the reinstatement of our full timetable.’
Reduced timetable
‘Overall, we will be operating 85% of our base timetable. There will be no changes to our
Intercity and Connect routes as their performance remains relatively robust. However, our
Regional services will operate at reduced service level of approximately 75%.
This timetable will be very similar to that which was in operation for the months leading up to
the May timetable change. As a result, we are confident it is robust, deliverable and provides
sufficient capacity for customers across the network.’
Where to find information
A list of the amended services by route can be found on EMR’s website. These changes are likely to remain in place until December 2021 but as the Operational Delivery Improvement Plan progresses, it may be possible to reinstate some services. Information about any further changes will be updated on the website.
