UK: The Newcastle – Edinburgh service operated by TransPennine Express under contract to Transport Scotland will continue after December 2024, despite the end of Scottish government funding.
The service introduced in December 2021 comprises five Newcastle – Edinburgh trains per day, plus two additional trains between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The trains serve Dunbar, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth, Widdrington, Morpeth and Cramlington, and the new stations at East Linton and Reston.
The operator told Rail Business UK that ‘TransPennine Express, Transport Scotland and Rail North Partnership collaborated through an innovative funding agreement to enable services to be introduced between Edinburgh and Newcastle. These services connected together by train, for the first time in decades, the communities of East Lothian, East Berwickshire and Northumberland, and included calls at the new Scottish stations of Reston and East Linton.
‘That specific funding agreement ended in June 2024, with these services now firmly part of the schedule of services specified and funded in the usual way by the Rail North Partnership to TransPennine Express. These services are very popular with the customers and the communities they serve, and all parties look forward to their continued growth.’
