Jo Lonsdale - North East and Cumbria; Pamela Bilalova - North East and Cumbria
A rail user group has said a new timetable for the East Coast Main Line - described as the biggest shake-up for a generation - is a "poor deal" for some travellers.
The main operator LNER has described the changes, which come into force on 14 December, as "transformational".
It is promising quicker journeys, with up to three trains an hour from Newcastle to London, and thousands of extra seats every day.
But Dennis Fancett, chair of campaigning group Senrug, said: "Thousands more passengers will have to change to get where they want to go, and may be lost to rail travel altogether."
The new timetable sees additional services between London and Newcastle, at the expense of fewer LNER stops at some stations.
Mr Fancett, whose group speaks for rail users in Northumberland and beyond, believes the rail industry is prioritising faster journey times between major cities over the interests of the rest of the network.
"With good Wi-Fi you can work on a train, what you don't want is to spend half an hour waiting in the cold for a connecting service," he said.
"It is a really poor deal for many of the towns of our region and could just push people to fly instead."
He said he was also disappointed at the loss of a direct service between Morpeth and Cramlington to MetroCentre, Hexham and Carlisle.
Conservative Councillor Guy Renner-Thompson, who represents the Bamburgh ward in Northumberland, said there were "some good things" in the timetable with extra late night services, but that overall it was "bad news" for the county, with both Berwick and Morpeth losing LNER services.
"There are no extra Northern services to some of the smaller stations like Chathill, Widdrington and Cramlington either, which are really needed," he added.
In relation to Northumberland, LNER said that it had "worked closely with other rail operators to make sure there is strong local and national connectivity".
"We recognise the changes may not satisfy everyone, but the industry timetable will be of benefit to the greatest number of customers across the north," it added.
Meanwhile in Durham, passengers have raised concerns over reduced services to Peterborough, as well as gaps between trains travelling to Newcastle.
The new timetable also means Durham will lose almost half of its direct links to Edinburgh, bringing the number of weekday services down to 17 from 29.
Journeys to Peterborough will drop to seven from 18 at present, with no direct connection to the transport hub between 06:40 and 19:40.
However, services to London will increase slightly during the week, up to 22 from 19.
Passenger Andrew Rice, who commutes from Durham via Peterborough, said the shake-up prioritised London, Newcastle and Edinburgh over smaller places.
"I think it's detrimental to the area, because it cuts out Durham from so many things," the off-shore assessor said.
"It reduces connectivity down to places like Peterborough."
Mr Rice, who will now travel via Grantham to reach his final destination in Lowestoft, said the changes were "very ill thought-out" and smaller stations could be overwhelmed if there was an influx of passengers who had to change their route as a result of the new timings.
He said it seemed "completely ridiculous" to "cut out Peterborough".
LNER said the Durham to Peterborough route was one of its least travelled and the total journey time between Durham and Lowestoft would remain the same, even with an additional change in York.
It added there would be 63 trains a day from Durham to Newcastle, where passengers would be able to connect onto "many services to Edinburgh".
The operator previously defended gaps of more than 45 minutes between arrivals in Newcastle from Durham, saying they were "broadly in line with what already exists in the current timetable".
Tony Miles from Modern Railways magazine said the changes were "driven by LNER's ambition to make long distance rail travel more attractive", with the other operators being asked "to fall in round that" by picking up some services.
He said he was "a bit nervous" about the changes and was not sure how it would affect passenger numbers.
"It's a more European philosophy, more trains going to the bigger transport hubs, with more people expected to change," he said.
"But some of the connections are poor so we'll have to say what happens," he added.
Among the other changes, Northern Trains said passengers would benefit from the extension of the service between Newcastle and Carlisle.
It will travel through to Middlesbrough, stopping at Sunderland, Hartlepool, Stockton and Thornaby, more frequently.
Between Newcastle and Middlesbrough, services will run hourly instead of every two hours, giving better east-west connections, the operator says.
It also pointed to a new late train between Newcastle and Ashington in Northumberland.
TransPennine Express said it would be increasing the number of services it offered between Newcastle and Edinburgh from five to eight per day.
CrossCountry said it would be offering some additional services between Reading and Newcastle but warned major engineering work across the network from Christmas 2025 until the end of January meant the new timetable would not operate in full until February 2026.
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