New LNER strikes every weekend from 31 August to 10 November

I already bought tickets for a Sunday in September. Will be able to return my ticket? what alternative do I have coming from Edinburgh to London?

Currently until LNER know what is happening, sit tight. At some stage you will be offered the chance for a full refund or travel on the previous Friday or the next day (Monday) on your existing ticket.

You can also route from Edinburgh on Lumo trains down the East Coast or on Avanti to London Euston. Lumo will fill up quickly, Avanti have much more capacity.

A new ticket would be needed for Lumo or Avanti if the strikes go ahead.

Or use Caledonian Sleeper except that they also have a strike threat hanging over them.

Ha! Of course the day after I buy tickets from Aberdeen to Edinburgh on a LNER I read this. Ah well the travel gods do have a sense of humor, and luckily so do I! I know it's early and little is known, but anyone have a sense when LNER will let affected folks know their options? My situation is 3 of us will be getting off the ferry from Wool Week on Sunday Oct 6th (no opportunity to travel a day early) and heading to Edinburgh for a couple of nights (stuff and lodging already planned for Sunday afternoon so a pain to rebook). I bought the tickets through the Scotrail website yesterday evening. Should I be looking at booking on a different train service out of Aberdeen and just be prepared to eat the £40 I paid for our 3 tickets on LNER (which while annoying, would be fine)?

@ Angella- this is on 6 October so plenty of time yet. What 'should' happen is that LNER will allow their tickets to be used on the Scotrail train (or even a Cross Country train if one exists) closest to your booked train, without having to change them.

Hopefully we will know by this time next week (or soon afterwards) what a typical weekend strike day timetable is going to look like and what other options are available such as refunds or inter availability on other operators.

The back up is that Flixbus and Scottish Citylink/Megabus also run from Aberdeen to Glasgow.
The 8am Flixbus arrives Edinburgh at 1130 and the 9am at 1225.

Citylink/Megabus run at 0735, 0805, 0830, 0835 then every 30 minutes- all except the 0830 are 3 hours 6 minutes to Edinburgh- the 0830 is 3:28, as it runs via Perth and Edinburgh Airport).

If the ferry was right on time you could be on the 0735 bus but that is very tight.

Thanks isn31c! I'd noted the bus options, but my fingers are crossed for LNER tickets allowable on other services that day...if the strikes are still ongoing. I'll keep an eye out for more info next week.

Strike day timetables are still awaited, but also note that LNER will have a significantly reduced service this Saturday, 24 August due to staff non availability and have no service to or from London this Sunday, 25 August due to planned engineering work South of Peterborough.

Services are also subject to disruption today, 23 August (like those of other operators) due to flooding and downed trees following the second named storm in 2 days.

Northern Rail in particular has substantial storm disruption across it's network.

If your train is cancelled today or tomorrow on LNER you may cancel on either of the two services before, or after, your booked train. Services will be very busy so it is highly advised to book a new seat up to 5 minutes before departure.

LNER have now confirmed their timetable for the first strike weekend (now in all journey planners) and tickets are now back on sale-

Departures from Kings Cross to Edinburgh on the Saturday are at 0730, 1000. 1200, 1400 and 1500 only with extras to York at 0906, 1106, 1306 and 1506 only and to Newcastle at 1600, 1800 and 1930. Leeds services will only run at 1330, 1530 and 1703

Southbound from Edinburgh trains leave at 0830 and every two hours to 1630 (last train), from York at 0829, then 0953 and hourly to 1658 then 1856 (last train)

Sunday from Kings Cross to Edinburgh is northbound every 2 hours from 0930 to 1730 (last) and a 1930 to Newcastle and a Leeds every 2 hours from 0900 to 1700, then 1800 and 2000

Southbound from Edinburgh is every 2 hours from 0900 to 1700, from York at 0922, then 1130 and every 2 hours to 1930.

No service beyond Edinburgh or on any other LNER branch line

Tickets are off sale now for 7/8 September. That weekend is scheduled for diversions via Carlisle so the timetable may end up as even more restricted.

@ Angella,

Due to the reduced emergency Scotrail timetable if the LNER strikes go ahead on 6 October the first train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh will be at 1244, arriving at 1524, then 1508 (change Dundee), 1531, 1704, 1745 (change Dundee), 1904 and 2130.

So if you need to be in Edinburgh before 1530 you need to book one of the buses instead. You will have 4 to 5 hours wait after disembarking the ferry for that 1st train.

Thanks for the update isn31c! We have tea at the Balmoral booked for 4:30 on the 6th, so if we need the later train that day, it should still work. From the "Industrial Action" page in the LNER site it looks like they are offering refunds as dates get closer to the actual travel date, so we'll wait and hope it gets worked out before Oct 6th, but be ready to execute plan b (later train) or plan c (bus) should the need arise.

I can see timetables are out for the first weekend. Will there be any pattern in the trains affected on later weekends or are the journeys to be interrupted more randomly selected?
Mp

The issue with the 3 September weekends from 14/15 September onwards is the planned engineering work, closing the line between Edinburgh and Newcastle. The timetables on their website for those weekends will be superseded.

Until next Saturday or Sunday no-one (including LNER timetable planners) knows if they will have enough drivers for the planned diversions via Carlisle- which were to add over an hour onto the normal journey time.

South of Newcastle the same service pattern can reasonably be expected. This is the same kind of service as they have run on every strike day for the last year or more.

Then the first two weekends in October there is engineering work between Doncaster and Grantham with some services diverted non stop via Lincoln, adding 1 hour to the journey time. Other trains are replaced by bus between those two stations. So what service pattern can now be run with the limited number of drivers available will need to be determined, if the strikes happen. Again the existing published timetables will be superseded in due course.

The strikes have been called off now, but a reduced service will still operate on the 31st August/1st September.

For clarity, it is too late now to restore services for this weekend, so the above very reduced timetable will still apply (now confirmed by LNER).