Timetable review
RAIL Fares and Services Expert BARRY DOE presents his twice-yearly review of the National Rail Timetable
Fares and Services Expert BARRY DOE presents his review of the December 2017 National Rail Timetable.
The National Rail Timetable (NRT) has remained fairly stable. The worst of earlier errors have been corrected, and the publication remains of a higher quality than the editions of a few years back.
This is the timetable for December 10 2017-May 19 2018. It is good that many things that are vital for such a publication, yet which were threatened with removal, have all been retained - such as details of catering, First Class, reservations and mileages at the start of each table. We also still have a ‘References & Symbols’ file.
However, accurate though the index is, the abolition of sub-divisions for stations that appear in many tables means it is no longer user-friendly.
This edition features the total withdrawal of the maps that preceded many tables. They hadn’t been kept accurate and so in one sense aren’t missed, but the omission of any map for the overall system is really poor. What railway timetable doesn’t have a map?
I was told that the Rail Delivery Group was thinking of updating the old system map so that it could be used by the NRT once again, but it hasn’t yet happened.
The withdrawal of the ‘Commercial Pages’ was a disappointment, as there is no longer basic detail on how to use the timetable, how to contact operators, how to cross London, or walking times between groups of stations. This was all information that was fairly static, so needed virtually no updating, so I cannot understand why it was dropped.
One thing above all else remains really disappointing, however, and that is the way in which the same few mistakes occur edition after edition. I point out the errors here, and in most cases they are pointed out by the operators at proof stage as well, but they’re still wrong next time round.
For example, I have come to expect that many tables won’t show ‘associations’ where trains join or divide en route. But omitting them can cause major problems, as the example below in Table 11 shows so well. I have come to expect all the catering on Virgin Trains East Coast services to be wrong; I expect the Sunday Preston-Hellifield trains in Table 94 to be shown as terminating at Clitheroe; I expect one of Chiltern Railways’ two ‘Parliamentary’ trains to/from Paddington to be omitted; and I expect the 0830 Llandudno-
Cardiff to be omitted from Table 131.
For whatever reasons, these errors are always there. I always say so, and the NRT team gets a copy of this review. Why, then, do they not consider it worthwhile to make a list of these to check as each edition is finalised?
I would be the first to say ‘well done’ if, in May, all these were at last correct.
General
In what follows, unless stated, times are for Monday to Friday. I am comparing the new NRT with the May 2017 edition.
I use the following abbreviations: CrossCountry (XC), First TransPennine Express (TPE); Great Western Railway (GWR); High Speed Train (HST); Intercity Express Train (IET); South Western Railway (SWR).
Table 1
In my review of the May 2017 NRT, I commented that the only significant change to c2c’s timetable was the removal of some Barking stops in the peaks, to avoid overcrowding. An alternative for users at those times was to use London Underground.
I guess this led to a lot of complaints, as Tube journeys to Barking are far slower. This timetable has a partial reversal, with a number of peak services having their Barking calls reinstated. West Ham stops have been removed instead, in some cases. Sadly, the NRT still has difficulty with ‘associations’ (where trains join or split en route). This can be very misleading.
For example, if you want to arrive in London around 0930 from Walton-on-the-Naze, the
The omission of any map for the overall system is really poor. What railway timetable doesn’t have a map? Table 11
NRT shows you catch the 0738 and change at Thorpe-le-Soken into the 0745 Clacton-onSea to Colchester, where you then change into the 0758 from Harwich Town, which arrives Liverpool Street 0936.
If you look five columns to the right, you see there is an 0800 Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester, arr 0835, which connects into the 0810 Stowmarket to Liverpool Street, arr 0939.
So, you have two choices, right? Wrong. The 0800 from Walton-on-the-Naze joins the 0758 from Harwich Town at Colchester - so not only do you not have to change twice after leaving Walton at 0738, but you can leave at 0800 on what is a through train. There is no way of knowing this from the NRT, because the association brackets are missing.
It’s even worse. I mention the 0745 ClactonColchester above. Well, that doesn’t terminate as the NRT shows either, but itself joins the 0800 from Colchester Town and is a through train to Liverpool Street (arr 0921).
So, if you did leave Walton-on-the-Naze at 0738 and change at Thorpe-le-Soken, you’d find you were then on a through train to London anyway (arr 0921). What a vast difference in accuracy a few bracket omissions make.
Table 26
Once again, the East Coast features an increase in weekend services, with an additional 24 trains on Saturdays.
New on Mon-Fri is an 0440 York-King’s Cross (arr 0700). That brings back memories for me of a train that ran daily around that time in the late 1960s. It was the sort of train that just doesn’t exist today - a non-Sleeper 2330 Edinburgh to Colchester, which left York 0354 and arrived Peterborough 0636, where it connected for King’s Cross (arr 0847).
For those intrigued, it continued via Ely and Bury St Edmunds, arriving Colchester 1010. However, aside from that, the first daytime train was 0700 from York to Doncaster, connecting into the Hull Pullman, which arrived London 1000. How the world has moved on!
Once again, catering remains incorrect on Virgin Trains East Coast services. They all offer hot food in First Class and so simply require the ‘knife & fork in a box’ symbol, but all are shown as having only a trolley. The only trains showing the correct offering are Hull Trains, giving the impression that HT alone offers hot food.
This seems to go on year after year, despite my pointing it out on every occasion.
Tables 28 & 167
All bus services between Barton-on-Humber and Hull have been removed on Sundays to Fridays, yet are shown for Saturdays. My guess is that the NRT policy of deleting anything Subscribe at railmagazine.com that isn’t a train is being applied, and that the Saturday buses are an error.
I accept it was pointless showing bus and ferry links that were often out-of-date, but where the link is an integral part of the network it is important to show the details. Removing them for dogma sake is really headin-the-sand.
We see this later on in Table 167 (Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin). The ‘tube’ train timetable on the Isle of Wight is centred on connecting with the Wightlink Catamaran service to/from Portsmouth Harbour, and SWR’s own IoW timetable rightly shows the Shanklin trains, the ferry times and the mainland connecting times to/from various stations between Portsmouth Harbour and Waterloo.
The NRT shows Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin without even a reference to the fact that a ferry runs to the mainland. Curiously, the Index refers to a Table 167A which was perhaps meant to be a new table for the ferry alone, but it doesn’t exist!
Table 35
On Sundays, there is a significant improvement in the York to Leeds via Harrogate service. The shuttles between Horsforth and Leeds now extend to/from Knaresborough and the timings are completely revised, with a longer operating day.
Leeds to York is hourly from 1005 to 2105, with the new trains to Knaresborough running from 0935 to 1936, then 2131, then finally 2226 and 2323 to Harrogate.
Tables 42, 94 & 97
There are no changes as yet to Leeds, Settle & Carlisle services ( Table 42). As usual, shuttles run on Sundays at 0839 and 1319 from Preston to Hellifield, plus 1030 and 1455 return (the latter extending to Blackpool from April 1).
Also, as usual these trains appear in Table 94, but only as Preston-Clitheroe trains, with no mention of their extension to Hellifield - even though I make this point every edition.
Incidentally, the normal Mon-Sat XX03 departures from Manchester Victoria to Clitheroe have been tweaked, so they vary each hour. For example, departures are 1003, 1102, 1201 and 1300, running 59 minutes apart at every station en route, too!
However, one major change for the good is that Mon-Sat off-peak services between Manchester Victoria and Blackburn have doubled to twice-hourly, with the extra services generally departing Victoria XX28. Some of these don’t call at Entwistle.
The NRT shows no departure at 1228, but it does run. Also, perhaps unhelpfully, the NRT shows departures at XX20 from Blackburn non-stop to Victoria, even though they are overtaken en route.
These are services via Todmorden (Table 97). However, they are only shown in the one direction and not from Victoria to Blackburn. To further confuse matters, Table 97 gets it right from Blackburn to Victoria by showing three trains an hour - the one via Todmorden in full and the faster route from Table 94 as ‘non-stop’.
Yet in the other direction Table 97 shows only the one train an hour via Todmorden. It is all so symptomatic of the NRT not checking for consistency between tables, because they probably don’t appreciate the geography of this part of the world.
Finally, Table 97 has two sections, with the first dated until March 23 (March 25 for the Sunday section). This is because Blackpool North reopens on March 26, and so all the buses are shown prior to then.
However, the Blackpool South line reopens on January 29. In the section dated until March 23 the replacement buses are correctly shown, dated until January 26, but no trains are shown for the following weeks!
The impression given is that there are neither buses nor trains to Blackpool South from January 28 until March 26. Once again, a lack of careful checking pervades.
Table 44
Bishop Auckland’s service is doubled to hourly - not before time, as it’s hardly a rural route. Previously trains from Saltburn at XX57 ‘odd hours’ ran to Bishop Auckland with others terminating at Darlington. They all now run through to Bishop Auckland.
Table 48
Morpeth has additional trains. On Mon-Fri the 0632 Dundee-Plymouth calls at 0924 and the 1707 Edinburgh to Bristol Temple Meads at 1824. Northbound, the unique 0609 Bath Spa to Glasgow Central via Edinburgh calls at 1152 and the 0925 Plymouth-Aberdeen calls at 1649.
On Saturdays, the previous call in the 0606 Edinburgh-Plymouth is removed and inserted into the new 0548 Edinburgh-King’s Cross (at 0710). There are also calls in the 1100 & 1300 Glasgow Central-Exeter St Davids services at 1318 and 1521, while only six minutes earlier at 1515 is a new call in the 1400 EdinburghKing’s Cross.
Saturdays northbound the 0615 Bristol Temple Meads-Glasgow Central calls at 1147, the 0930 King’s Cross-Edinburgh at 1253, the 1023 Exeter St Davids-Aberdeen at 1645, and the 1330 King’s Cross-Edinburgh at 1654.
On Sundays, the 1131 Newcastle-Edinburgh (XC) calls at 1144, the 0925 Plymouth-Glasgow Central calls at 1741 and the 1225 PlymouthDundee at 2048, the 1348 Glasgow CentralPlymouth at 1622, and the 1655 Glasgow Central-Birmingham New Street at 1923.
I accept it was pointless showing bus and ferry links that were often out-of-date, but where the link is an integral part of the network it is important to show the details. Removing them for dogma sake is really head-in-the-sand.
Incidentally, all the above times are departure times and hence will vary from those shown in the NRT, which sometimes only shows arrival times.
Finally, a very significant change on Sundays is the introduction of nine Northern local services between Newcastle and Morpeth, thereby opening Manors and Cramlington for the first time on a Sunday in recent times.
Overall, the Morpeth service to/from Newcastle is now vastly superior to that which existed a few years ago - five XC trains, six Virgin Trains East Coast, and 14 Northern local services each way Mon-Fri.
Indeed, Morpeth to Newcastle has risen from six on a summer Sunday to 17 this winter!
Tables 65, 82 & 85
Table 65 has two sections, with the second commencing February 12. This is to show the completion of electrification between Manchester and Preston via Bolton, but that isn’t going to happen, so TPE services will in fact continue to run via Wigan North Western for now.
Indeed, I gather that Network Rail has admitted that so much remains to be done on the corridor that sections of the route are to be closed to all traffic on most (if not all) weekends for the early months of the year, until it’s completed.
Two new TPE services are of note. First is a 2100 Manchester Airport to Glasgow Central, arr 0050. Unfortunately, it is omitted from all the relevant tables of the NRT.
Second is a 2215 Edinburgh to Manchester Airport, arr 0215, except on Thursday morning when it terminates Manchester Piccadilly at 0159. There is an onward ‘connection’ to the Airport on Thursdays, but not until 0345!
Finally, as occurred in last May’s NRT, a note appears at the foot of every page of Table 65 referring users to ‘Operator websites’ for details of Sleeper services. The omission of a Sleeper table, as always appeared at the rear of the NRT, is a ridiculous one, seeing as it took up a mere page.
However, I remind readers that the Middleton Press printed version does have such a table, which they have constructed especially.
Table 71
Kenilworth should have appeared in this table, shown as opening at some stage during the timetable period. But there is no mention of it either here or in the index.
Table 82
Services from Manchester Victoria to Wigan North Western have doubled to twice-hourly on Sundays, particularly benefiting Swinton, Walkden, Atherton and Daisy Hill.
Table 115
The major error from last May’s version of this table - the omission of trains to Aylesbury via Princes Risborough - has been corrected.
However, while the sole service to use the route out of Paddington (the 1136 to High Wycombe) is now correctly shown as running non-stop, its southbound working at 1057 from South Ruislip, which was shown in the otherwise-erroneous version last May, has been omitted.
Tables 116, 117 & 126
The NRT has initial sections covering the period until December 31 2017 in all GWR tables, as the operator had always said its new timetable would commence January 1.
Incidentally, I gather that because the Middleton Press-printed NRT isn’t available until mid-January, to save space these initial sections will have been removed. Historians will not miss out, as these sections are the same as applied for the May NRT!
Thames Valley services feature a major change, thanks to electrification through to Didcot Parkway having been completed just in time. However, of all recent and past electrifications, this one on the surface is a disappointment in currently offering no faster services than existed when run by Turbos.
There are exceptions, such as a new 1636 Class 387 from Paddington to Didcot Parkway (arr 1720), calling only at Reading.
Yes, trains are now mainly eight-car formations (12-car in the peak), but frankly if I lived at Cholsey I’d dread travelling for 74 minutes on such a basic train as a Class 387 - although it’s true that the journey can still be
The 1736 to Cheltenham Spa becomes the ‘Cheltenham Spa Express’. But is six minutes slower than last year, when it was the plain 1742 with the same Gloucester arrival.
improved upon by catching something faster between Reading and Paddington.
Heathrow services are unchanged and the pattern of local services to Reading ( Table 117) remains mostly unaltered, but local trains that extended to Oxford now terminate Didcot with a connection for Oxford, albeit generally with a ten-minute wait ( Table 116).
Paddington-Bedwyn trains have been slowed down. They used to leave Paddington XX18 and take 70-75 minutes to Bedwyn. Now they leave XX06, have the same stops, but take up to 83 minutes.
However, the main PaddingtonOxford service in Table 116 is maintained, because one half-hour is a Cotswold train for Worcester and the other half-hour is a shuttle - although often just a Turbo.
I think that overall Chiltern Railways might be a beneficiary of this new timetable, with its half-hourly trains from Marylebone taking the same time - and even faster if Oxford Parkway suits users.
At this point, it’s worth noting that a decision had been taken to withdraw all First Class from Class 166 Turbos in January (it had already been removed from Class 165s).
For this reason, these tables all show virtually no services with First Class. This applies to Table 148 (Reading-Gatwick), detailed below, now wholly Standard Classonly. Even GWR’s own publicity matches this.
Then, at a very late stage (it seems literally just before Christmas), a decision was taken to reinstate it - or, more accurately to retain it, meaning all publicity will be incorrect until reissued in May.
Like the appalling decision not to have First Class in Class 387s, as had originally been planned, this smacks of Government interference, always wanting to suppress choice.
The treatment of major Thames Valley towns is disgraceful, considering the affluence of the area.
Take Maidenhead, which doesn’t get Class 166s anyway and so won’t change again. It has two trains to Paddington conveying First Class: 0642 and 0706, both (I believe) HSTs. And for their £1,500 annual supplement, users can enjoy the 1948 home. That’s it! Nothing at weekends, of course.
Of course, the 1948 is far too late and GWR only adds the call for the Standard market. Unlike a normal commercial business, it has no interest in its premium customers - or (rather) probably told to ignore them by government.
Worcester services themselves are largely unchanged (Table 126). The 1122 Paddington to Great Malvern now terminates Worcester Foregate Street at 1344. This allows the 1425 return from Great Malvern to start from Worcester at 1355, giving a much better spacing than before back to Paddington.
The 1222 Paddington-Worcester is speeded up by 11 minutes, owing to not having to wait at Evesham to access the single line. However, the 1834 Great Malvern to Paddington now has a dreadful path, having to wait nine minutes at Evesham, 11 minutes at Moretonin-Marsh and nine minutes at Charlbury, arriving Paddington 32 minutes later than before. You’d never imagine money was spent redoubling long stretches of the line, only for trains to be pathed so badly in this way.
Finally, on Saturdays there is a new 1222 Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh, arr 1400 and returning 1450 to Paddington, thereby plugging a previous two-hour gap. And on Sundays there is a new first train at 0839 from Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington, arr 1101.
Tables 120 & 121
There have been minor changes to the Marlow (Table 120) and Henley-on-Thames branches to improve connections. All Henley trains now call at Wargrave in both directions and the branch ( Table 121) is also now self-contained with no more through running to Paddington.
Table 122
Annoyingly, Reading-Basingstoke services have been tweaked and are now irregular. Local trains from Reading were fairly consistently XX06 & 36 all day, but now are any combinations of XX05/ 06/ 07 & XX33-40.
Northbound, they left Basingstoke XX06 & 36 but are now XX06-11 & XX33-37. That’s really annoying, seeing that they connect (or not) into and out of totally regular-interval SWR services at Basingstoke.
Table 123A
I mentioned in May that this is the only remaining bus table in the NRT, but that although it also shows (correctly) the trains between Yeovil Pen Mill and Yeovil Junction, it doesn’t get the buses quite right.
I pointed out the precise errors, which include omitting the first and last buses, so that corrections could be made. But this has all been ignored, and the table has gone back with exactly the same errors as before.
As I said earlier, we can but wonder why, when errors are pointed out, the NRT Team doesn’t keep these on file to ensure the next edition is improved.
Table 125
There are few changes at this stage to Bristol or South Wales services, as they gradually change from HSTs to IETs. The 1000 from Paddington no longer runs to Taunton and beyond (see Table 135, below), but the 1030 extends to Weston-super-Mare instead.
The 1912 to Bristol Temple Meads, which ran Fridays-only as a relief to the 1915, now runs Mon-Fri. And on Mon-Thu it is non-stop Paddington-Swindon - albeit in 51 minutes, still six minutes slower than was the norm on frequent off-peak services almost 40 years ago with today’s HSTs!
Indeed, the 1912 reaches Bristol Parkway at 2035, whereas the evening peak non-stop service in the early 1980s took 65 minutes.
Finally, the 1736 to Cheltenham Spa becomes the ‘Cheltenham Spa Express’. But is six minutes slower than last year, when it was the plain 1742 with the same Gloucester arrival.
Table 131
As is now completely the norm (despite my having said this every successive edition for many years), the 0830 from Llandudno to Cardiff Central, which has the non-stop run from Shrewsbury to Newport, is omitted.
Table 132
Pilning retains just two trains a week in one direction only. The Saturday service consisted of calls at 0834 and 1334 in the 0800 and 1300 Cardiff Central-Taunton services. The latter has now moved to 1534 to Taunton (the 1500 ex-Cardiff), despite the local group’s request to retain the 1334 as a third train.
Table 133
The NRT still shows the Saturday connecting buses between Avonmouth and Severn Beach that ran when trains didn’t, but GWR has told me they have been withdrawn.
Table 135
At last Cornwall has an early departure from London! For years, many first long-distance trains out of other termini had left by 0600, but the first Plymouth service (let alone into Cornwall) was 0730 - and via Bristol! The arrival in Penzance was 1317.
Then, in more recent times, it was joined by a first direct ‘Berks & Hants’ service at 0706 to Paignton, with a Penzance connection from Newton Abbot (on a Class 150!) arriving 1243.
Three years ago, the 0706 was diverted to Penzance and the 0730 via Bristol diverted to Paignton (with a Penzance connection).
Now, from January, there is a new 0633 nonstop from Reading to Taunton, and into Exeter St Davids at 0841, Plymouth at 0934 (although the NRT says 0938), and Penzance at 1137.
The general departures to the West Country are now XX03. The 0703 diverts to Paignton (arr 1011) and the 0730 reverts to Penzance (arr 1313), still running via Bristol Temple Meads.
The 1018 Exeter St Davids-Penzance, which was the connection out of the 0730, has moved forward to 0924 to retain the slot used by the old 0706 - although oddly, in doing so, it runs just in front of the new 0703 to Paignton and so doesn’t connect.
The 1000 Paddington-Paignton via Bristol now terminates Weston-super-Mare, but a new 1035 to Paignton runs direct with the same arrival time, hence saving 35 minutes. The 1134 semi-fast to Exeter St Davids runs at 1234 and terminates Taunton.
A new first train from Plymouth to London is now 0451, into Paddington 0837, although with ten stops. The spacing from Penzance to Paddington is then greatly improved with previous through trains at 0844, 1000, 1303 and 1559 becoming 0900 (‘Cornish Riviera’), 1000, 1204, 1400 and 1600.
As a consequence, another time-honoured gap is filled, as there has always been a twohour gap from Plymouth to London in the afternoon, which the 1204 ex-Penzance fills at 1356.
Sadly, GWR seems to have lost all interest in Frome, the largest town on the ‘Berks & Hants’ Line between Reading and Taunton.
The original aim was to give it a through train every two hours on a semi-fast service between Paddington and Taunton. This included calls at other smaller stations such as Hungerford and Bedwyn.
It started with a train about every four hours, but by last year, as apathy set in, all that remained were the 0605 and 1556 Frome to Paddington services, with the only return the 1805. This January the 1453 Exeter St DavidsPaddington starts Taunton at 1533 and omits the Frome call, so just the 0605 up and 1805 back remain.
As these start and terminate at Frome, there are no longer any services from Frome to/from Taunton or beyond.
Tables 136 & 140
Portsmouth Arms (Table 136) has very few trains on Mon-Sat but a few more on Sundays. However, the times meant that people visiting the adjacent pub of the same name could only have 40 minutes there.
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, together with Campaign for Real Ale, persuaded GWR to change the 1340 stop in the 1323 Barnstaple to Exeter Central to one in the 1528 instead, by swapping calls with Morchard Road.
Sadly, this is not shown in the NRT, but it now allows people to travel out on the 1159 from Exeter Central, arrive at 1259 and stay until 1544 for drinks and lunch, with a 1635 arrival back at Exeter.
Table 140 features changes to the Looe branch to match the revised changes on the main line in Table 135. One outcome is that the first daytime arrival from Paddington is now 1040, the earliest in history.
Table 148
There has been a major improvement between Reading and Gatwick Airport on Sundays, with the pattern matching Mon-Sat of a semi-fast to Gatwick plus a stopping service to Redhill half-an-hour later.
The latter skip-stops, with Chilworth and Gomshall calls one hour and Dorking West and Betchworth the next.
Tables 152, 156 & 160
There are very few changes to SWR services, and these are very minor. One improvement is that all Waterloo-Dorking trains on Sundays from 0902 to 1502 (1210 to 1910 return) now call at Boxhill & Westhumble throughout the year, rather than just in summer (Table 152).
Table 156 shows some fast Portsmouth services out of Waterloo with additional calls at Godalming (0930, 1530 & 1630) supplementing its normal twice-hourly service.
The next such event will be even more noteworthy - when Thameslink trains via Blackfriars also resume calling at London Bridge, en route for East Croydon via the new flyover. ‘Thameslink 2000’ will have arrived!
Despite SWR pointing it out at proof stage (and the fact that I mentioned it in my last review), the NRT team has again omitted all the ‘associations’ in Table 160 ( WaterlooExeter), so that Waterloo-Bristol Temple Meads through trains appear only as Salisbury-Bristol shuttles.
Table 178
London Overground now has an all-night service on Friday nights into Saturday and Saturday nights into Sunday, with Highbury & Islington trains running every 15 minutes to/ from New Cross Gate.
Tables 200, 203, 204 & 206
The significant event here is that all trains into and out of Cannon Street resume calling at London Bridge. Of course, the next such event will be even more noteworthy - when Thameslink trains via Blackfriars also resume calling at London Bridge, en route for East Croydon via the new flyover. ‘Thameslink 2000’ will have arrived!
However, the service pattern has changed for Hayes ( Table 203). Previously, peak trains ran from either Charing Cross or Cannon Street with all the off-peak from the former. Now half the entire service goes to Cannon Street - two per hour to each terminal off-peak. Sundays remains wholly to/from Cannon Street.
Table 216
Turning to Scotland, there are new Mon-Fri services between Carlisle and Dumfries at 0958, 1220, 1430, 1727 and 2017 and from Dumfries at 0713, 1102, 1304, 1602 and 1841. This brings Mon-Fri up to the previous Saturday level and it is now virtually hourly, albeit a little irregular.
Also new on Mon-Sat is an 0513 Dumfries to Glasgow Central, arr 0707, and (filling a twohour gap) a new 2013 Glasgow to Dumfries.
Surprisingly, the above are the only significant changes in Scotland for this timetable period. No doubt bigger changes will follow once electrification of Glasgow Queen Street-Edinburgh is completed and the new rolling stock becomes available.
Table 400
As has been explained above under Table 65, the NRT had abolished the Sleeper Table. But although this won’t be found online it does appear in the printed version, because the table from Middleton Press’ ‘Abbreviated Rail Times’ ex-Thomas Cook version is shown, duly renumbered T400.