Overnight trains planned by some operators
Britain’s railway started running extra trains from 12 September to carry passengers wanting to pay respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In Scotland, ScotRail ran an hourly overnight service between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High on the night of 12 September, while the Queen lay in state at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. The operator also added coaches on trains running to Edinburgh, while express services between High Street in Glasgow and Airdrie were added with no stops with a normal service running between Airdrie and Edinburgh. A shuttle service ran for stations between High Street and Airdrie.
On 12 September, a 15-minute frequency service ran between Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High between 10.00 and 16.00. CrossCountry stabled a train at Edinburgh Waverley to allow people to rest in the warm and have hot drinks and sandwiches.
South of the border, London stations switched to 24-hour a day operation with retail units and key facilities also open to cope with expected additional passenger numbers when the Queen lies in state in Westminster Abbey from 17.00 on 14 September to 06.30 on 19 September.
Network Rail cancelled or postponed hundreds of items of engineering work to allow trains to run into and out of London without disruption. Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway, Southeastern, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains all planned to run overnight trains to the capital.
Avanti West Coast, c2c and East Midlands Railway are running additional daytime services. In total, around 200 extra trains per day from 13 September to 16 September were due to run.
Similar plans for extra trains have been made over the weekend and for the day of the Queen's funeral on Monday 19 September. Operators have also parked empty 'welfare trains' at stations to give waiting passengers shelter and a seat.
