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East Coast Main Line

That is very helpful, and I am pleased to hear it. It is just that kind of thing that I hope to get out of today's debate, to clarify where it is already recognised that the service needs to be maintained and where work must continue to ensure that it is. The next gap that I wish to mention is also a southbound service, and it is the main commuter train from Edinburgh. The most obvious time that people leave work is about 5.30 pm, and there is a 5.31 pm train. I use it myself sometimes and it is very well used, but under the new timetable it will not stop at Berwick, which will be a serious gap for regular commuters. The East Coast service running through to Glasgow from Berwick is to be almost entirely withdrawn. In its place, a new CrossCountry service to Glasgow will be provided. Far more of the CrossCountry trains go there, but those new trains will not stop at Berwick under the draft timetable. A lot of people travel between Berwick and Glasgow, as many organisations that have branches in Berwick are headquartered in Glasgow, so a lot of people make trips to Glasgow as part of their work, and the removal of that service is a loss. As I mentioned at the start of the debate, the last departure from King's Cross to Berwick is at 6 pm. The new timetable actually suggests that the 7 o'clock will run through beyond Newcastle every day, instead of just on Fridays as it does at the moment. I am so suspicious about the timetable exercise that I cannot believe that is for real—I suspect that "Fridays only" has been missed off the timetable rubric. I would love to be wrong, because I have argued for several years that the earlier removal of that daily 7 pm service to Edinburgh was a serious loss, and a potential loss of business because it was another reason for people to use the plane rather than the train. On the draft timetable, Alnmouth gains four trains, but loses 13—a net loss of nine. The service at that station is not hourly, but broadly two-hourly. From London, there is now no train between 11.30 and 3.30, and the 3.30 is the last train, except on Fridays, instead of 5.30.