Book later to avoid disappointment?

Winter begins tomorrow, at least according to Britain's train operators. The schedules between now and next May show some welcome improvements. The biggest enhancements will be seen on Virgin Trains' cross-country trains. For the first time, regular-interval services are being introduced, which means that Bristol-to-Exeter and Newcastle-to-Bournemouth trains will depart at the same times each hour. A new fleet of 78 Voyager trains will replace the locomotive-hauled services that have been more laughing stock than rolling stock.

Elsewhere, the emphasis has been on getting services back to the performance levels prevailing before the Hatfield crash and other tragedies, which triggered a wave of speed restrictions. On First Great Western you can now reach Plymouth from London Paddington in three hours, at least on one train a day (but not on Sundays). The train operator is facing competition to Cornwall from Ryanair's flights between Stansted and Newquay.

FGW is also reinstating a half-hourly daytime service between London Paddington and Cardiff, and introducing more "Adelante" trains to its lines.

But if you plan to take advantage of the new services over Christmas and the New Year, you will have to wait. The schedules for the last two weeks of December and the first week of January have not yet been finalised. As a result, it is impossible to book a ticket on the main long-distance routes in Britain. Virgin Atlantic Airways can sell you a ticket up to a year in advance, but its sister train operator cannot manage to book seats even three months ahead.

"We are still finalising the arrangements for services, particularly weekend engineering week," says a spokesman for Virgin Trains. It expects to start selling Christmas and New Year trains in "two or three weeks".

GNER, which runs from London to Yorkshire, north-east England and Scotland, is more specific. It opens for festive business on 17 October.

Bargain tickets are likely to be in short supply when bookings begin. "Cheaper tickets are sold to persuade people to travel on less busy trains," says a GNER spokesman. "Christmas is a busy time."

First Great Western is suspending its cheapest "walk-up" tickets, the Supersavers, from 16 December to 3 January 2003. But normal peak-hour restrictions on the use of Saver tickets will be lifted for 27, 30, 31 December and 1 January.

On most lines, there will be no service running from the evening of 24 December until the morning of 27 December. In the past, some rail links from central London have operated on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. But Airport Express has not yet finalised its plans.

One company knows exactly when it is running trains, and is happy to sell you a ticket right now. Eurostar's last train to Paris on Christmas Eve departs at 5.15pm, with a Brussels service at 5.48pm (the same times apply on New Year's Eve). And on 26 December there will be trains running from London Waterloo to Paris and Brussels, on a "modified Sunday service", beginning shortly after 8am on Boxing Day morning. And you can book right now for any Eurostar service up to and including 14 February 2003.

Additional research: Tina Desai