Media invite: Major boost for Sheffield train passengers as EMR's new timetable begins

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Note to media: East Midlands Railway will be offering face-to-face interviews at Sheffield station at 09.30 on Monday, 17th May.

There will the opportunity to interview the following: 

• Will Rogers, Managing Director, East Midlands Railway 
• Dan Jarvis, Mayor of Sheffield City Region
• Gavin Crook, Principal Project Sponsor, Network Rail
• Peter Kennan, Chairman, Transport Forum at Sheffield Chamber of Commerce & Industry 
  

If you would like to attend, please email media@eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk by 1pm on Friday, 14th May.

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East Midlands Railway’s (EMR) service between Sheffield and London will be quicker and more frequent when the company introduces its new timetable on Sunday, 16th May.

The changes, which were made possible by the successful delivery of the £1.5 billion Midland Main Line Upgrade by Network Rail, will provide more seats, quicker journeys, and a simpler and more resilient timetable for communities across its network, with earlier and later services supporting leisure, business and tourism journeys. 

As well as the enhanced services, Sunday will mark EMR's return to its full 'pre-Covid' timetable for the first time since March 2020, helping to support the region's recovery from the pandemic. 

Passengers travelling from Sheffield are set to benefit from several specific enhancements to the current service, including quicker peak journey times to London St Pancras International and consistent departure times through the day.

Day trippers or passengers wanting more flexibility will also be able to take advantage of the new timetable which will see the first train arrive in London approximately one hour earlier than today and the last train depart approximately one hour later.

Also, EMR has designed the timetable in a way which keeps the fastest off-peak journey times to London under two hours and 15 minutes.

The new timetable will also provide passengers a wider range of options on Intercity services with the introduction of a full, weekday timetable after 2pm on Sunday. This change will make journey times and frequencies broadly comparable seven days a week and is a significant improvement for both Chesterfield and Sheffield.

EMR has worked hard to put a number of measures in place so passengers can travel with confidence when they return to its services.  These include regular swabbing and monitoring of touchpoints, employing the most cleaners in its history, sourcing powerful disinfectant products and purchasing new specialist fogging cleaning equipment.

Will Rogers, Managing Director of East Midlands Railway, said he was excited to begin the new timetable and welcoming passengers back to EMR's services. 

He said: "We are delighted to be able to start this new and significantly improved timetable. The £1.5 billion Midland Main Line upgrade has allowed us to offers more seats, quicker journeys and more frequent journeys to our Sheffield passengers and across our network. 

"It includes earlier and later services supporting leisure, business and tourism journeys and will help to support the region's recovery out of the pandemic. 

"It is vital that customers returning to our network can travel with confidence and that is why we have put in place many new measures, such as employing the most cleaners in our history, sourcing powerful disinfectant products and purchasing new specialist fogging cleaning equipment.

"As well as the enhanced services, Sunday will mark our return to our full pre-Covid' timetable and everyone at EMR is looking forward to welcoming back passengers." 

Gary Walsh, Route Director for Network Rail in the East Midlands, added: “It’s brilliant to be welcoming passengers back to our new, improved railway. Many thousands of people from across our industry have worked together over several years to deliver the biggest step-change improvement for passengers and our freight customers in a generation on our route.

"Our £1.5bn investment has been carefully targeted to deliver best value for money and as the country moves out of Lockdown, we’re delighted to be doing our part to support its recovery by offering clean, safe and reliable services in partnership with our colleagues at EMR.”

Examples of new timetable

Sheffield - London - Journey times - [old journey time]
• 04.58 - 07.09 - 2hr 11mins [New earlier train - 1hr earlier in London]
• 05.30 - 07.39 - 2hr 9mins [was 2hr 38mins]
• 05.56 - 08.08 - 2hr 12mins [was 2hr 27mins]
• 06.30 - 08.39 - 2hr 9mins [was 2hr 31mins]
• 07.00 - 09.09 - 2hr 9mins [was 2hr 23mins]