The Newslines from the November 2024 Digital Edition are reproduced here:
INTERNATIONAL
From November 4, Eurostar will align the names of the three classes of service available across its entire network. The new names will be Eurostar Premier, Eurostar Plus and Eurostar Standard. These will replace Business Premier, Standard Premier and Standard on its services to and from London. On its services between Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany (formerly known as Thalys) the new names will replace Premium, Comfort and Standard classes.
GREAT BRITAIN
Scottish long-distance bus Tables 227 and 228 have been fully updated for the winter period with timings valid until March 27.
IRELAND
Belfast’s new central rail and bus transport hub, Grand Central Station, opened in October. It is located on the site of the old Great Victoria Street station. All services to and from Larne, Bangor, Londonderry and Portrush now serve the new station (Tables 231 and 233). Enterprise services on the Belfast to Dublin route increased in frequency from every two hours to hourly from October 29. Northern Ireland Railways services between Lisburn and Portadown and Iarnrod Eireann services between Dundalk and Dublin were recast at the same time (Table 230).
FRANCE
The whole of the Sud-Est high-speed line between Paris and Marseille will be temporarily closed for four days from November 9 to 12 so that work to upgrade the signalling system can take place. During this period a much reduced service will operate with journeys taking considerably longer than usual; readers intending to travel to destinations in southeastern France using TGV services are advised to confirm timings before travelling.
A new timetable has been introduced between Paris and Granville with most trains having extended journey times, some by as much as 20 minutes (Table 273). The bus connection to Mont St Michel now runs from Villedieu les Poeles.
Updated bus timings between Rennes and Mont St Michel, operated by Keolis Armor, have been added to Table 274. These are valid from November 4 to March 31.
Bus journeys between Bedous and Canfranc are suspended until further notice as the RN134 road has been damaged by recent bad weather (Table 324).
The bus substitution between Neussargues and St Chely d’Apcher has now ended meaning the daily through rail service between Clermont Ferrand and Beziers is running once again (Table 332).
The railway between Drap and Breil-sur-Roya is closed for long-term engineering work meaning rail replacement bus services will be operating between these stations until further notice (Table 581).
ITALY
Operation of passenger services on the branch line between Rovigo and Chioggia (Table 620) has passed to Trenitalia. Note that services between Adria and Chioggia are currently operated by bus.
Ferrovie Appulo Lucane introduced a revised timetable from October 24 on its route between Bari and Matera (Table 636).
SPAIN
From December 15, the morning Intercity service from Almeria to Madrid will be retimed to depart Almeria later in the afternoon, at 1530, running with train number 279 (Table 661).
NORWAY
A derailment at Bjerka on October 24 has resulted in temporary changes on the Nordlandsbanen. The section between Mosjøen and Mo i Rana is currently closed to rail traffic, but is expected to reopen by
mid-afternoon on November 4.
AUSTRIA
Tables 950 and 950a have both been updated with temporary timings that will apply until December 14 following the flooding of the highspeed line between Wien and St Polten. Until this date all trains will operate via the classic route resulting in extended journey times. Other tables have not been fully updated so please consult Table 950 for confirmed timings from and to Wien. The high-speed section between Wien and St Polten is expected to fully re-open from the start of the new timetable on December 15.
The 8371m Tauern Tunnel (located between Bad Gastein and Mallnitz-Obervellach) will be closed to all rail traffic from November 18, 2024 to July 13, 2025 so that modernisation work can take place. Infrastructure work will also take place at other locations along the route between Schwarzach-St Veit and Villach. The work will take place in three phases, the first running until March 2. During this period rail services will continue to run as far as Bad Gastein (north of the blockade) and to Mallnitz-Obervellach (south of the tunnel). For longer distance journeys a fast bus connection will be provided between Bischofshofen and Spittal-Millstattersee. Overnight services that normally use this route are either suspended or diverted. The following overnight services will be suspended from November 17 to July 13 (Table 71):
- NJ 237/236 Stuttgart – Venezia
- NJ 295/294 Munchen – Roma
- NJ 40295/40235 Munchen – La Spezia
The following overnight services will be retimed and diverted via Graz for the duration of the work:
- EN40237/414 Stuttgart – Zagreb (Table 62)
- EN40465/40414 Zurich – Zagreb (Table 86)
Full details of the amended timetable will be published in a special version of Table 970 in the December edition.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Owing to severe flooding that affected many parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina early in October, the section of line between Ostrozac and Grabovica (17 kilometres) was severely damaged. As a result, Bosnian Federation Railways has suspended all services on the Sarajevo to Capljina line until further notice (Table 1355).
WINTER INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Our Winter International Supplement has been expanded and updated further with timings for many of our international tables valid from December 15. It will be found at the back of this edition from page 591.
Table 13 (Winter): There will be some significant retimings on the Paris to Barcelona route. Southbound TGV 9713 will run two hours earlier, departing Paris at 0742. The afternoon northbound service will run three hours later, departing Barcelona at 1625 and will be allocated train number 9706.
Table 18 (Winter): The Intercity service between Amsterdam and Brussels will be completely revised and operated by Dutch Railways’ recently introduced Intercity New Generation trains. Branded Eurocity Direct, the revised hourly service will run from and to Amsterdam Zuid and will call only at Schiphol, Rotterdam and Antwerpen en route. Most services will actually run from and to Lelystad, thus providing the Flevoland province with a direct link to Brussels. An hourly EuroCity service will also operate between Rotterdam and Brussels which will make additional station calls omitted by the new Eurocity Direct service, including Breda, Noordekempen, Mechelen and Brussels Airport.
Tables 21 and 70 (Winter): European Sleeper plan to run an overnight service conveying sleepers, couchettes and a restaurant car between Brussels and Venezia via Innsbruck on five dates in February and March. Two additional trips will be made between Brussels and Innsbruck.
Table 55 (Winter): A new daytime ICE service will be introduced between Paris and Berlin via Strasbourg and Frankfurt. Train ICE 9591 will depart Paris at 0955 with return service ICE 9590 setting off from Berlin Hbf at 1154. The journey time will be just over eight hours.
Table 58a (Winter): This new table contains four new daily Baltic Express services operating between Praha and Gdynia via Lichkov and Miedzylesie from the timetable change.
Table 75 (Winter): An additional pair of EuroCity services will be introduced between Mu nchen and Zurich. EC297 will depart Zurich at 0535 with EC296 forming an evening departure from Munchen at 2051.
Table 77 (Winter): A second InterCity service will comence between Berlin and Przemysl via Krakow.
Table 82 (Winter): There has been no major change on the international routes between Switzerland and Italy except that the train numbers on services between Zurich and Milano will be amended from three digit numbers to two.
Table 99 (Winter): Independent operator Leo Express plans to introduce a second service between Praha and Krakow.
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