LNER has announced plans to add more services and seats between Yorkshire and London on Sundays.
The rail operator said that Sundays “are now one of the most popular days for journeys with 30 per cent more customers travelling across the 956-mile LNER network than in 2019”.
To meet this demand LNER is adding three additional services to its timetable – two between Leeds and London King’s Cross and one between Doncaster and London.
From December there will be a new 0830 departure from Doncaster to London King’s Cross (calling at Retford, Newark Northgate, Grantham, Peterborough), an 1140 departure from Leeds to London King’s Cross (calling at Wakefield, Doncaster, Peterborough), and a 1433 departure from London King’s Cross to Leeds (calling at Peterborough, Newark Northgate, Doncaster, Wakefield).
Note that the 0805 service from Leeds to London King’s Cross will no longer call at Retford, Newark Northgate and Grantham, meaning the service will arrive into London at 1018.
Meanwhile the firm is also switching its current five-carriage trains on eight Sunday services to longer nine or ten-carriage trainsets.
The 0905 from London King’s Cross to Harrogate, the 1315 from Harrogate to London King’s Cross, the 1705 from London King’s Cross to Harrogate, and the 1903 from London King’s Cross to Leeds will all become ten-carriage services from December.
And the 0805 from Leeds to London King’s Cross, the 1103 from London King’s Cross to Harrogate, the 1536 from Harrogate to London King’s Cross, and the 1906 from London King’s Cross to Lincoln will all become nine-carriage services.
LNER also said that it had further plans to introduce more seats next year.
Commenting on the news David Horne, Managing Director at LNER, said:
“This is fantastic news for our customers. The data shows more customers are travelling with LNER at weekends, with Sundays proving especially popular.
“Our plans will provide more than 3000 extra seats from December, while also improving the connectivity for many of our destinations between London and West Yorkshire on Sundays.”