East Midlands Railway set to restore more services from Sheffield to London after cuts over summer
It comes after prolonged disruptions on the busy route
A rail operator will be restoring more of its services to the capital city after months of disruptions for passengers.
The 9am service between Sheffield and London St Pancras is set to be restored by East Midlands Railway (EMR) following a surprise announcement in July this year that the rail operator was cutting its ‘Intercity’ routes, connecting a number of locations to London.
Throughout summer, only half of these services from Sheffield were running, with reduced carriages at many other times.
Following massive public backlash, including scathing criticisms from South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard and Sheffield Central MP Abtisam Mohamed, EMR has been working to restore the route.
Now the firm has revealed that from Monday, October 19, 96 per cent of the full timetable will be operating.
In a public announcement, EMR said: “Following the introduction of a temporary reduced timetable in July, EMR increased its Intercity operation from 87 per cent to 92 per cent of the full planned timetable from Tuesday, September 1.
“This increase was supported by improved operational stability across EMR's Intercity fleet.
“Since the introduction of the 92 per cent timetable, EMR has continued to work closely with Hitachi Rail, the Department for Transport (DfT), DfTO and other industry partners to improve fleet reliability and ensure the resilience needed to operate additional services safely and consistently.”
In Sheffield, this will mean the return of the weekday 9am service to London.
EMR has also said that there will be more weekend travel options and later and earlier journeys, with a full timetable available online.
As disruptions continue, ticket flexibility options are in place.
A National Rail spokesperson added: “If your booked service is affected, you can travel on up to two earlier or two later East Midlands Railway services, or, if you decide not to travel, you can claim a full refund from where you purchased the ticket.
“In addition, if you are travelling between Sheffield and London St Pancras International with any flexible ticket (such as an anytime, off-peak or super off-peak ticket) you can travel via Doncaster with your existing ticket, at no extra cost, using Northern/TransPennine Express services between Sheffield and Doncaster, and then LNER services between Doncaster and London Kings Cross. This applies even if your booked train is unaffected.
“If you have an advance ticket booked for an East Midlands Railway train which is still running, your ticket will not be valid on other operators.”