LNER has become the UK’s first train operator to offer free sanitary products onboard its trains.

The firm, which operates services between Harrogate and London King’s Cross, said in a statement today it will introduce the scheme across its entire fleet.

Passengers can request a ‘package for a friend’ directly from an LNER team member onboard, or by scanning the catering service QR code next to their seat. A team member will then “discreetly” deliver the products to seats, LNER added.

The move comes after a survey, carried out by YouGov on behalf of LNER, found 22% of people have experienced a time when they, or someone they are with, needed sanitary products but could not access them.

LNER said it first introduced the scheme at London King’s Cross station after recognising “everyone should have access to period care products when they need them”, and has now partnered with organic period product company TOTM to expand the delivery.

Gill McKay, an on-train delivery manager at LNER, said:

“Customer feedback, supported by research, highlighted the upset that can be experienced by not having access to period products.

“We believe everyone should be able to travel with confidence and in comfort and providing free, environmentally friendly products to anyone who needs them is just one way we can provide support, help the planet and break down barriers and stigma.”

Kiley Yale, head of sales at TOTM, added:

“We are really excited to be working with LNER to champion period comfort, wellbeing and dignity across their trains, stations and offices.”

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There will be no trains running between Harrogate and London King’s Cross over the next two weekends.

It comes after Northern Rail announced four days of engineering work on the billion-pound East Coast Digital Programme.

LNER, which runs between London King’s Cross and the north east, is among the lines affected.

It will be operating a reduced service starting and terminating at Grantham, with hourly trains running between Leeds and Grantham over the two weekends.

From Grantham, people can get a rail replacement bus to Corby, where they will connect with other operators’ services to and from London St Pancras.

The disruption will be in place from Saturday, January 6 to Sunday, January 7, and Saturday, January 13, to Sunday, January 14.

LNER said there are no planned changes to the regular weekday schedule.

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No trains will run from Harrogate and Knaresborough to Leeds and York for five days this week.

RMT Union members will walkout from today until Saturday (December 17) in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The strikes will be the latest to hit the Harrogate district rail network this year.

Northern, which operates services from Harrogate and Knaresborough towards Leeds and York, has warned passengers not to travel as no replacement bus services will be running.

Services will resume on Sunday (December 18), but Northern has urged passengers to check before they travel.

Meanwhile, no LNER services from Harrogate to London King’s Cross will run until Sunday.

A table issued by Northern warning passengers of days with industrial action.

It said in a statement:

“On strike days, only travel by rail if necessary and if you do travel, expect severe disruption and plan ahead – especially the first and last trains of the day.

“If you do decide to travel, there will be very limited services running across the whole rail network so remember to check your entire journey as other train service providers may be affected.

“There will be no rail replacement buses on strike days for Northern services and some Northern stations may be closed or have reduced hours due to the limited staffing and services.”

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The head of Harrogate’s tourism body says it will continue to use social media influencers and new marketing campaigns after facing questions over the spending of almost £6,000 of taxpayers’ money.

Gemma Rio, head of Destination Harrogate, was quizzed by members of Harrogate Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny commission last night.

It came after £5,220 was spent on a giant snow globe at London’s King’s Cross station and £700 was paid to a travel blogger to promote Harrogate at Christmas, as first reported by The Stray Ferret.

Ms Rio said the marketing methods were a “toe in the water” as part of a new tourism strategy and that similar campaigns would run again.

She said:

“We’re absolutely delighted with the snow globe.

“Not only was it great for us to be reaching out to new markets in the south-east, but it also generated a lot of interest from our stakeholders locally.

“Those stakeholders have since come to ask to buy into our campaigns which will further extend our reach.”

Council leader Richard Cooper also defended the snow globe, which promoted train services to Harrogate. He said one was also used in Leeds and “a number of other locations across the district”.

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This followed questions over how many visitors came to Harrogate as a result of the snow globe and if the £5,220 was well spent.

Ms Rio said the visitor numbers were “difficult to monitor” and that there was a greater focus on creating a “sustained brand profile” which would promote the district over a long period of time.

She said:

“Place marketing generally is rarely intended for immediate conversion.

“We could have very well hit our target market, for example, a woman in her 50s in King’s Cross station going to work.

“She’s seen the snow globe, interacted with the Visit Harrogate team, picked up a leaflet and been impressed, but the reality is she’s actually already booked all of her festive plans.

“So when she sees our gardens campaign in the spring, or an article we’ve placed in the travel pages of The Telegraph, she will continue to be impressed by Harrogate and she may well come in Christmas 2022 or have a summer holiday in 2023.

“That’s how we manage all of our place marketing.”

Bristol-based blogger Heather Cowper, who runs Heather on Her Travels, was the social media influencer paid £700.

One of the Instagram posts.

After visiting Harrogate, she published an article listing “11 fun things to do” in the district and there have since been questions over how many people actually saw the content online.

Defending the £700 spends, Ms Rio said: 

“We chose Heather Cowper because her following is largely made up of women in their over 50s, which is a key target market for us.

“£700 does sound like a lot of money when it’s reported that it only got two shares. The reality is that the campaign actually got over 10,000 views on Instagram.”

Ms Rio added: 

“We will continue to look for digital influences that align with our target markets and we will monitor their return on investment.

“We have to ask our residents, business and councils to have a little faith that everything we’re doing is resulting in those visitor numbers.”

Concerns over infrastructure and rolling stock have delayed the introduction of improved direct train services between Harrogate and London.

A new timetable, with an earlier direct service to London King’s Cross, was due to be implemented in May 2022.

The shake-up was announced by LNER in June last year as part of wider changes to services on the east coast main line.

LNER said times between Harrogate and London would be about 10 minutes faster as part of the new timetable, which included:

• A service to leave Harrogate earlier, at 6.35am rather than 7.34am.
• A new seventh daily train would leave Harrogate at 6.35pm. On the current schedule, the last train departs at 5.36pm.

In the opposite direction, from London direct to Harrogate:

• Trains would start almost an hour earlier (6.40am rather than 7.33am).
• The final service back would also be earlier, at 4.39pm rather than 5.33pm.

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However, the improved services will now not be introduced after Network Rail recommended that the Department for Transport, which has the final decision on the timetable, delays the implementation.

The organisation said it had “concerns around infrastructure, rolling stock and performance and stakeholder feedback” with the changes.

Simon Leyshon, industry programme director for Network Rail’s east coast route, said it hoped to implement the changes as soon as possible.

He said:

“Postponing the new timetable change for the east coast main line allows us to dedicate more time to considering the views passengers and stakeholders shared with us during the consultation process last year.

“We’re now working closely with train operating companies and the wider rail industry to develop a timetable that meets passenger’s changing travel patterns and makes the most of the increased capacity on the East Coast main line following the £1.2 billion East Coast upgrade.”

Network Rail also pointed out that Harrogate had already seen an additional Northern service introduced on the Leeds to York line in December 2021.

LNER is planning to change its East Coast Main Line timetable from May 2022, with a significant shake-up to services from Harrogate.

The operator currently runs six trains each way between London King’s Cross and Harrogate each day and there are several key changes on the cards.

It says the planned improvements will benefit its fleet of 65 diesel-electric Azuma trains, which use Japanese bullet train technology.

LNER is calling for the public to give feedback on the full timetable over the next eight weeks.

Big changes to and from London

Direct departures from Harrogate to the capital would move from odd hours to even ones:

• The first service would leave earlier, at 6.35am rather than 7.34am
• A new seventh daily train would leave Harrogate at 6.35pm. On the current schedule, the last train departs at 5.36pm.

In the opposite direction, from London direct to Harrogate:

• Trains would start almost an hour earlier (6.40am rather than 7.33am)
• The final service back would also be earlier, at 4.39pm rather than 5.33pm.
• There are no plans to run an extra seventh train from London to Harrogate.

LNER estimates that travel times between Harrogate and London would be about 10 minutes faster.

There would be a new direct daily service to Newark North Gate, but this would come at the expense of the direct Grantham service. Passengers to the south-west Lincolnshire market town would need to change at Leeds or Doncaster.

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The rail company said in its consultation document that the May 2022 timetable’s core structure is fixed, but that “it may be possible to make some local adjustments in response to feedback”.