More trains, more seats for Wellingborough and Kettering commuters from Monday

Train services through Northamptonshire will be another step nearer returning to normal after this weekend.

East Midlands Railway, which operates journeys from Kettering and Wellingborough, are restoring more services cut during the the Covid-19 crisis.

One morning rush-hour service returns to the timetable from Monday, July 6, to meet increased demand as people return to work following the lockdown.

The addition of the 07.29 from Kettering and 07.37 from Wellingborough means that 13 out of EMR's 14 peak time arrivals into London St Pancras are up and running again.

EMR's managing director Will Rogers said: "With the further easement of social restrictions and the reopening of more leisure and retail businesses we expect customers number to continue to slowly rise.

"Therefore, it makes sense to introduce more services and more seats ahead of the expected increase in customers.

"We simply ask customers to ensure they bring a face covering with them as they will remain mandatory on public transport alongside this increase in services and follow Government on the use of public transport."

The train operator will also add extra seats to services already running and continue to monitor customer numbers while keeping this new timetable under review.

One late night service from London has also been restored, leaving St Pancras at 21.05 and calling at Wellingborough at 21.55 and Kettering nine minutes later.

London Northwestern Railway is also increasing capacity on its London-Northampton-Birmingham services as part of a step up in rail services across the country as more people are able to return to their workplaces alongside easing of lockdown restrictions for numerous industries and businesses.

An extra 40,000 will be provided on LNR services to and from London every weekday, including 10,000 at peak times, although the company's new timetables will not be confirmed until later this week.

London Northwestern's managing director Julian Edwards said: “This new timetable marks an important milestone for our customers and our colleagues as the country begins to get back to work.

“Since the pandemic began we have moved quickly to adapt our timetable based on the level of demand and the availability of our own staff, who are not immune to the effects of coronavirus.

“I am pleased we are now in a position where we can run more trains with as many carriages as we possibly can to help our passengers travel with confidence.”

Passengers returning to the railway for the first time since lockdown are being urged to avoid peak travel times, buy their tickets online and allow extra time as some stations may have one-way systems in operation.