September news

The RMT union has announced more strikes on Saturdays 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 September and 6, 13 and 20 October. Timetables are usually available by Tuesday for the following Saturday. On 25 August on the Cumbrian coast there were two return journeys between Workington and Barrow with six or seven buses between Carlisle and Whitehaven connecting with the trains. On the Furness line there were five return journeys between Barrow and Lancaster, none of them connecting with the coast trains. The Tyne valley had seven return trains between Carlisle and the Settle and Carlisle line had two trains between Carlisle and Skipton with connections to Leeds and Bradford and one or two buses as far as Appleby. Timetables for the following Saturdays are likely to be similar.

As usual the alternative for stations between Whitehaven and Carlisle is the 300 and 301 bus service for all stations except Dalston and just for Whitehaven and Carlisle the 600.

There are still cancellations on both the Cumbrian coast and Furness lines particularly at weekends but the position does seem to be improving. The Lakes line from Windermere returned to its normal timetable on 30 July.

Engineering work

Trains from Preston via Bolton replaced by buses on Saturdays and Sundays until 4 November and for the week 25 August-2 September.

London Euston will be closed for the weekends of  1-2 September with no trains south of Milton Keynes.

Carlisle-Edinburgh 23 September line closed before 1700 and replaced by coaches.

SATURDAY 06 & SUNDAY 07 OCTOBER Leeds – Carlisle: Trains Leeds – Hellifield, and Appleby – Carlisle. Carlisle – Leeds: Trains Carlisle – Appleby, and Hellifield – Leeds. Buses Skipton – Appleby (and vv). NOTE – interchange between bus and train is NOT possible at Hellifield. Customers should change at Skipton.

West Coast Railways have excursions to Stratford on Avon on 6 September from Carlisle, Penrith, Oxenholme and Lancaster and to Shrewsbury on 13 September from Carlisle, Penrith and Lancaster.

Haltwhistle station has Heritage open days on 7-8 September 1000-1600.

Michael Portillo is speaking and signing his new book Sympathetic developments at the Carnegie in Workington on 22 January at 1930. Tickets are £17.50.

Regulated fares (off peak returns and season tickets) are expected to rise by 3.2% in January 2019.

Delay repay is being extended on Northern to 15 minutes from December.

Northern are spending £285,000 on a publicity campaign with Cumbria Tourism.

The Office of Rail and Road Glaister report into the May 2018 timetable change puts the main blame on Network Rail for not recognising the risks of the delay to electrification projects and largely absolves Northern except in so far as it failed to provide sufficient information during disruption. (The press release links to the report itself). A second part of the report is due in December to recommend changes to future practices.