LNER Pipes In The Timetable Return Of The Famous Flying Scotsman Services
The famous LNER Flying Scotsman services between Edinburgh Waverley and London King’s Cross have officially returned to their historic mid-morning timings, thanks to the timetable transformation along the East Coast route.
Celtic rock band The Red Hot Chilli Pipers performed a rousing send-off for this morning’s 10:00 southbound LNER departure from Edinburgh and the 10:30 northbound service from London King’s Cross (Monday 18 May 2026). The musicians were joined by Scottish dancers to entertain customers at both stations, while pipers accompanied LNER colleagues to welcome those boarding the trains.
The celebrations follow the introduction of a new, faster industry-wide timetable in December 2025, which delivered 10,000 additional LNER services a year and an 60,000 extra seats per week. An hourly fast service has cut journey times between the two capitals to around four hours and ten minutes, in addition to other regular services between the cities throughout the day.
While the Flying Scotsman service has remained part of the LNER timetable, in recent years it operated as an early morning departure from Edinburgh, leaving before 06:00, with no equivalent northbound service. The service itself dates back to 1862 and officially adopted the Flying Scotsman name in 1924. From then on, it became famous for its simultaneous 10:00 am departures from London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, although the services took almost twice as long as today's modern Azuma trains.
The revised timetable reflects that heritage as closely as possible within today’s railway network. Customers can now follow in the historic footsteps of the Flying Scotsman service while enjoying the comfort, speed and convenience of a modern-day LNER Azuma train. For the inaugural journeys, a special Scottish-themed menu was served in First Class, including haggis pie, cranachan, shortbread and tablet.
Colette Casey, Customer Experience Director at LNER, said: "We know how popular named services are and the Flying Scotsman is one of the most well known in railway history, synonymous with speed and quality. We are proud to offer our customers a modern-day service that combines that history with the comfort and convenience of our Azuma trains.
“We’re delighted to be able to restore the services to the historic mid-morning timings as part of our timetable transformation, which continues to provide many thousands more seats per week across our route, and even more great value fares.”