Rail Industry Takes to the Trains to Prepare for Transformational Timetable

On Thursday 12 June 2025, colleagues from LNER and Network Rail, as part of the East Coast Partnership, along with industry partners from Hitachi, Northern, TransPennine Express, Department for Transport, and Office of Rail and Road boarded the 09.00 LNER departure from Edinburgh Waverley to London King’s Cross for what’s become known as the annual ‘Coffee Cup Run’.

The now yearly event started out with humble beginnings, with industry experts originally placing a filled coffee cup on a train table and analysing track and ride quality by measuring the level of spillage.

The new industry-wide timetable will see changes for all East Coast Main Line train operators. For LNER, it will bring quicker LNER journeys between London and Edinburgh, cutting the time for some services to close to four hours, and allow it to operate 37 extra services each weekday, providing millions of additional seats per year for customers. The change will also see additional economic value of at least £108million delivered every year.

Introducing this huge change is the result of years of hard preparatory work from rail industry colleagues. This year’s Coffee Cup Run is yet another example of the industry coming together to deliver a better railway for customers.

While onboard, four main topics were discussed and analysed – train-borne infrastructure monitoring, infrastructure readiness, December 2025 train performance, and impact of external events – with solutions and introductory measures being crafted collaboratively.

John Grainger, Joint Head of Performance for the East Coast Partnership, said: “Colleagues from across the East Coast Main Line are working closer than ever before to deliver a rail network that is as good as it can be for the customers it serves.

“Events such as the Coffee Cup Run are an innovative approach to collaboration, with industry experts experiencing, first-hand, journeys from a customer’s perspective. This year’s event provided us with an opportunity to work together on preparing for the December 2025 timetable change, the biggest change to train services on the East Coast since the 1990s.”

Simon Pumphrey, Infrastructure Director for Network Rail’s East Coast route, said: "This collaborative approach shows the rail industry working together to deliver transformational change for passengers. The December 2025 timetable represents the most significant overhaul to East Coast services in decades, and we must make sure our infrastructure is ready.

"The Coffee Cup Run provides valuable passenger perspective insights while enabling experts to identify challenges and develop real-time solutions. By combining our expertise, we're building a more reliable, efficient railway that will better serve communities along the entire East Coast route."

For many years now, the Coffee Cup Run has seen colleagues from across the industry board LNER services to discuss the impact of infrastructure issues including overhead line failures, external factors such as cable theft, and the severe damage that extreme weather can cause to the rail network.

Suggestions and solutions are followed up on, and thanks to last year’s event, more LNER trains now fitted with technology that helps proactively identify any potential infrastructure issues before they occur, reducing delays for customers.

To find out more about the December 2025 timetable change, visit: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/east-coast/east-coast-main-line-december-2025-timetable-change/