A useful meeting this morning at Newcastle discussing the possibility of a few extra Morpeth calls on VTEC services from December 16. No promises as yet but we did press our case hard so it is going to be a case of “Watch This Space”. Meanwhile a more immediate issue has arisen. It seems the May 2016 change involves removing the Alnmouth and Morpeth calls on the 18:30 south from Edinburgh (19:57 at Morpeth) and replacing it with a different train leaving Edinburgh at 19:35 (20:54 at Morpeth). This is really bad news, as the 18:30 from Edinburgh is a useful return service both for business people and day trippers (the only other choice for Morpeth passengers being the 16:00 XC). For those travelling to London “the night before” for a business meeting or flight the next morning, the replacement service won’t arrive in London until 01:05, after the tube has closed, and too late to check-in to a hotel with any decency. So, although the May timetables are apparently already in print, we are asking VTEC to look again at this issue and reverse it, even if the printed timetables are inaccurate. Let’s hope they see sense.
