UK’s lengthiest straight train path terminated by CrossCountry

The UK’s lengthiest straight train trip has actually been axed after greater than 100 years of solution.

CrossCountry, the driver of the train path, validated that the trip from Aberdeen to Penzance has actually been terminated as component of path modifications from May 2025.

The 774-mile trip attaching Scotland and the Cornish coastline presently takes about 13 hours and 20 mins to take a trip, with quits at 35 terminals in the process.

First released in 1921, the 8.20 am Aberdeen solution heads southern via York, Bristol, Taunton and Truro on its means past several of the most effective of British landscapes.

During the outing, tourists will certainly invest a total amount of 2 hours fixed as travelers jump on and off at each terminal prior to showing up in Penzance at 9.31 pm.

The long-distance traveler train driver validated its schedule modifications for 2025 recently as component of the rail network’s twice-yearly schedule evaluations.

From 18 May, the brand-new schedule will certainly hold, with the last straight leg from Aberdeen to Penzance set up to leave on 16 May.

According to a schedule, the train will certainly leave Scotland at 8.20 am, showing up in Cornwall at around 9.31 pm.

An development solitary ticket in a common course cabin from CrossCountry begins at ₤ 138.60 per grownup on 16 May.

Simon Calder, traveling reporter for The Independent, claimed: “As an advocate for rail travel, it’s a touch sad that the longest direct train in the UK is being curtailed – but the number of people who actually travelled the 13-and-a-bit hours from northeast Scotland to southwest England was minuscule.

“Fortunately, the main line through Cornwall from Plymouth to Penzance will remain well served, and if the CrossCountry core is better served due to the redeployment of rolling stock and staff, that will be a net gain.”

The solution will certainly currently run an 11-hour and 30-minute trip from Aberdeen just as much southern as Plymouth– 80 miles much shorter– with attaching trains on the primary line via Cornwall.

A CrossCountry speaker informed The Independent: “Amending our Aberdeen to Penzance service from May 2025 will mean a more efficient timetable for our train crews and a more convenient service for our customers, making a day trip from Bristol and the west of England to Penzance more viable. The new timetable will also deliver an additional service in each direction between Glasgow and the North East of England towards Birmingham.”

During the pandemic the Aberdeen to Penzance path ended at Plymouth, with the complete path renewed in May 2023.

“As an ‘express’ it is severely challenged, partly due to the long waits at a number of stations along the way – including 14 minutes at both Edinburgh Waverley and Bristol Temple Meads, and seven minutes at each of Birmingham New Street and Exeter St Davids,” claimed Mr Calder.

He included: “Indeed, National Rail Enquiries recommends any Aberdonian in a hurry to reach the end of the line in Cornwall should abandon the direct train at Haymarket, just west of Edinburgh, and change for a service to Wolverhampton, then switch to the Exeter train, and change again in Devon to get to Penzance by sunset.”

As it is completion of the line for the Aberdeen to Penzance path, the UK’s lengthiest straight solution will certainly currently be the Caledonian Sleeper’s over night train from London Euston to Fort William– about 12 hours and 45 mins.

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