Stirling to London service is reinstated by LNER
LNER will be reinstating its direct Stirling to London service from 9th December, following a temporary suspension of the service in the summer.
The East Coast Mainline operator took the decision to withdraw the service to improve its’ operational resilience at that time, with a promise to reinstate it as soon as possible. During the infamous ‘beast from the east’ storm last winter, one of LNER’s trains had to be removed from service due to damage. The operator was also facing a degree of reliability issues due to its ageing fleet, (which will be updated in 2019 via the roll-out of state-of-the-art high-tech Azuma trains).
Since August, LNER has implemented a comprehensive programme of reliability improvements to its existing trains and recruited more engineers dedicated to eliminating defects. The damaged train has also been recently reintroduced back into service after undergoing significant repairs.
David Horne, Managing Director of LNER says: “We continue to work hard on existing and new initiatives to improve our performance and I’m delighted to announce that we can reinstate our 0526 Stirling to London and 1500 London to Stirling services, especially as we know how valued they are by the local community.
"We have been working closely with Stephen Kerr, MP for Stirling, who has campaigned for the quick return of the direct service. We have prioritised the reinstatement of these services and hope this move reassures our customers that we are fully committed to playing our part in connecting this important region of Scotland to the rest of the East Coast Mainline.”
Stirling MP, Stephen Kerr added:
I was delighted to receive the news that these important services are being reinstated. Through the regular contact I have had with LNER I know they have worked really hard to address the problems that caused the suspension. That they have prioritised this and managed to get the service back running before the end of the year should be acknowledged.