Bill Purdue’s travel news for December

If you like to get out and about over Christmas by public transport, then here’s what’s happening on the buses and trains.

Well before Christmas, on 8th December, the railway timetables for all companies are changed or adjusted. In the old days a new national rail timetable for the whole of the UK would have been available to buy from stations. Now you can still get a national rail timetable, which includes Eurostar timetables, from Middleton Press costing £17.95 from bookshops. The new timetables will last until May 2014.

East Midlands Trains will be providing a faster service from Nottingham to London from 8th December.

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Some departure and arrival times will change across the network: you can download individual timetables, including the one for the Robin Hood Line, from the East Midlands Trains website.

At Christmas both East Midlands trains and East Coast Trains will not operate on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but New Year’s Day will be a fairly normal day.

Between 23rd December and 2nd January, East Coast Trains will operate to revised timetables. Go to http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/travel-information/festivetips/.

For more about East Midlands Trains services for the festive season, go to http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/tickets-deals/christmas-travel/Christmas-New-Year-services/

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As always check with the national rail enquiry line 08457 48 49 50 to make sure that you have the correct departure times for your journey.

On the buses, on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, all bus services will run until around 7 or 8pm. There will be no services on Christmas Day, but on Boxing Day trent barton will be operating several routes to a special timetable, mainly during the hours 9am to 5pm. Those affecting our area are the threes (following the ‘A’route), the nines (following the 9.2 route) and the pronto between Nottingham and Mansfield only.

The pronto will also run on New Year’s Day, again to a special timetable and only between Nottingham and Mansfield.

For a complete set of trent barton timetables of all their Boxing Day and New Year’s Day services, pick up a copy of the latest ‘trent barton play’ magazine available on buses and at enquiry offices. ‘play’ also has details of trent barton late night buses on New Year’s Eve. Stagecoach Mansfield night buses N1, N11, N15, N23 & N28 will also operate on New Year’s Eve – further details from Stagecoach.

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In Nottingham, the ‘Go2’ network of services will run on Boxing Day and the Nottingham trams will be running on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day with Sunday timetable frequencies.

In Sheffield, trams will run every day except Christmas Day with a special timetable in operation on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Finally, one more change which will be of interest to residents of Jacksdale and Selston: trent barton’s Rainbow 1 Alfreton or Ripley to Nottingham service, as from the beginning of December, will now operate in the evenings and on Sundays between Alfreton and Eastwood with alternate buses serving Jacksdale or Selston.

Sunday buses will continue to Nottingham, whilst evening buses will terminate at Eastwood where you can change to the Rainbow 1 for Nottingham. Through fares are available.

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To check on bus times call the Traveline on 0871 200 22 33.  Calls cost 10p per minute from BT Landlines, charges from other providers or mobiles may vary. Traveline is open weekdays from 7am to 8pm and weekends from 8am to 8pm.