Great North Eastern Railway
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| Franchise(s): | East Coast Main Line April 1996 – 2005 2005 – 2015 |
| Main region(s): | Central Scotland, Northern Scotland, North East England, East Midlands, South East England |
| Other region(s): | London |
| Fleet size: | 31 Class 91 electric locomotives 30 InterCity 225 sets |
| Stations: | 49 |
| Parent company: | Sea Containers Ltd |
| Web site: | www.gner.co.uk |
Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) is a British train operating company, owned by Sea Containers Ltd. They operate high-speed express train services on the East Coast Main Line.
Most of their trains run between London King's Cross and either Edinburgh Waverley or Leeds.
From Edinburgh Waverley, selected services continue on to Motherwell & Glasgow, Inverness, or Dundee & Aberdeen. From Leeds, some trains run to and from Bradford, Skipton, and Harrogate.
One service per day also runs to and from Hull via Brough, Howden and Selby. Other towns and cities served by GNER trains include Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnmouth for Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Wakefield, Perth, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars for St Andrews, Arbroath, and Montrose. GNER locomotives are serviced at Bounds Green TMD in London; and at Craigentinny in Edinburgh.
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[edit] History
GNER were originally awarded a seven-year franchise in April 1996 to run what had been the InterCity East Coast division of British Rail. The company was later granted with a two-year extension allowing them to operate trains until 2005. When this franchise expired, they won a renewal until 2015, overcoming rival bids from Danish State Railways, First, Scottish and North East Railway, and inter city-railways (a consortium of Deutsche Bahn, Stagecoach Group, and Virgin Group). For this new franchise, GNER’s annual payment to the government has increased to £130 million, quadruple the previous amount. As a result, the company said that they were likely to raise fares and make job cuts. [1]
The initials ‘GNER’ were almost certainly chosen for their similarity to LNER, the company that operated the route before being nationalised as part of British Railways in 1948. Additionally, two of the LNER’s predecessor companies were the GNR, who built Kings Cross station, and the GER.
GNER were the second-to-last British train company to allow smoking in designated areas on their trains, but banned it completely on August 29, 2005. First ScotRail at that time still allowed limited smoking, although it was subsequently banned in advance of the March 26, 2006 deadline, when a smoking ban in public places came into force under Scottish law.
In 2005, GNER and Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation made an unsuccessful joint bid, under the name Great South Eastern Railway, for the Integrated Kent Franchise now held by Govia, who operate it as Southeastern.
Under the name Great South Western Railway, GNER and MTR had pre-qualified to bid for the new South Western franchise, which will begin 4 February 2007 and combine services currently operated by South West Trains and Island Line. However, Stagecoach won the franchise again, meaning that Sea Containers' railway operations in the UK are still limited to GNER. [2]
[edit] Financial and operational concerns
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This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. |
In May 2006, it was revealed that GNER's parent company Sea Containers was in financial difficulties, and was rumoured to be bordering on insolvency. Subsequent to this, questions were raised as to whether GNER could continue operating should its parent company cease trading. The company rejected this assertion, stating that its lines of credit and financial activities were "ring-fenced" away from Sea Containers, and therefore a cessation of services for this reason was impossible. It did not however stop a furore of speculation from rival TOC's (principally Virgin Trains and First Group) that they would be keen to rebid for the ECML franchise if it were put back out to tender. In July 2006, rumours then began circulating that Sea Containers would be prepared to sell GNER in an effort to stave off resorting to Chapter 11 proceedings to secure itself from its creditors [3].
On 27 July 2006 the High Court rejected GNER's judicial review over the Office of Rail Regulation's decision to allow Grand Central Railway to operate trains along part of the East Coast Main Line [4]. GNER had made its application partly on the basis that 'open access' train operators (like Hull Trains) are not required to meet the same fixed costs for accessing Network Rail's infrastructure as those train operating companies running services under a contract or 'franchise' with the UK Department for Transport. GNER's case failed principally because the High Court determined that not only did European law permit the Rail Regulator to establish a charging regime for open access operators which was different from the one which applies to franchised operators (such as GNER) - in this case not imposing a fixed charge on open access operators - but that if he had not done so, he would have been acting illegally because of the very different conditions under which open access operators and franchised operators get access to the network. The High Court (Mr Justice Sullivan) refused GNER permission to appeal, and GNER decided not to ask the Court of Appeal to take the case.
On 25 July 2006, two days before the public judgment in the above action, GNER announced that Christopher Garnett, the company's chief executive officer, was to step down, having occupied that position since Sea Containers, GNER's parent company, won the first InterCity East Coast franchise (see above). Amid growing industry speculation that Sea Containers was working towards a "financial restructuring", that company's President and Chief Executive Bob MacKenzie was named as Garnett's successor [5]. During and following these events, Sea Container's serious debt issues fuelled speculation about GNER's future ownership and operation, as discussed in the general and rail industry press (see Rail Magazine, various news items/What now for GNER after East Coast court defeat?, issue 546 and Modern Railways, Informed Sources, September 2006).
The problems have been further fuelled by GNER's poor profitability, which has been linked to the company's overbidding for the ECML franchise coupled to what have proved to be crippling subsidy repayments to the Government (see above). The company blames the effects of the 7/7 terrorist attacks, increased electricity prices and increased competition from low cost airlines for the decline in passenger numbers. It also faces a growing challenge from the revitalised West Coast services operated by Virgin. The company has attempted to address the problem by encouraging internet sales by waiving booking fees, cutting staff numbers and raising fares and car parking charges where the market can bear it. In September 2006, the GNER's ex chief Christopher Garnett in a press interview [6] hinted at a bleak future for GNER and the franchising system - claiming that the trend among TOCs to overbid for the renewal of franchises would result in a financially unsustainable railway.
On 16th October, Sea Containers confirmed that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, therefore allowing it to continue trading should insolvency occur. Two days later, Sea Containers' chief Bob MacKenzie announced that the company was threatening to withdraw from the GNER franchise by May 2007 if the Government did not renegotiate the franchise terms.
By 27th November, 2006 the Department of Transport announced that it would withdraw the franchise from GNER, largely on the basis of Sea Containers' financial difficulties and its uncertain future. However, the company has been allowed to continue running the ECML franchise on a fixed management contract basis for up to 24 months, until a new operator is found. FirstGroup and Virgin Trains will almost certainly be the front runners for the re-let franchise.
[edit] Service patterns
[edit] Principal routes
In off-peak times, there are three or four trains per hour to and from Kings Cross. The following details apply to weekday operations.
Journey times on many services operated by GNER have actually increased since the days of British Rail. The fastest London to Edinburgh journey time offered by the state corporation was 3 hours 59 minutes, whereas the fastest GNER service today (with the same rolling stock) takes 4 hours 10 minutes (the 15:00 London Kings Cross to Edinburgh).
[edit] London–Newcastle–Scotland
A half-hourly service between Kings Cross and Newcastle operates for most of the day, departing from London on the ‘top of the hour’ and on the half hour. The ‘top of the hour’ departures continue through to Edinburgh (with the 10.00 keeping the traditional name The Flying Scotsman), with some of these extensions running yet further, on to Glasgow Central or Aberdeen and then Inverness. These Anglo-Scottish trains generally run as limited-stop expresses between London and Newcastle: all trains call at York, and most at Peterborough and Darlington. The 14.00, 15.00, 16.00, and 17.00 departures from Kings Cross run non-stop to York. The trains leaving Kings Cross on the half hour generally terminate at Newcastle and serve other intermediate stations such as, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster and Durham as well as Peterborough, York, and Darlington. An hourly service operates to Edinburgh with a few trains continuing beyond.
[edit] London–Leeds
The service between Kings Cross and Leeds is not yet half-hourly. There are still some hourly gaps in the pattern. Trains leave Kings Cross at five and (where applicable) thirty-five minutes past the hour, and serve most main intermediate stations. With the completion of the Allington Chord, near Grantham, having increased track capacity, GNER hope to finally implement a half-hourly service throughout the day on this route.
[edit] Stations served less frequently
[edit] Glasgow Central
GNER operate ten trains per day between Kings Cross and Glasgow. With the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow to 125 mph now complete, GNER can no longer compete with Virgin on this route when it comes to journey times (still 5hrs 30mins compared to the new 4hrs 25min time on the WCML), but they do provide a useful link from Glasgow to Newcastle and York. GNER's Kings Cross to Glasgow services are still heavily used at weekends, since ongoing engineering works on the WCML still mean that weekend Glasgow-Euston services are routed via Birmingham New Street, pushing the journey time to well over 6 hours.
[edit] Aberdeen
There are three trains per day between Kings Cross and Aberdeen, leaving London at 10.30 (The Northern Lights), 14.00 and 16.00, and three leaving Aberdeen at 07.55, 09.55 and 14.55. The journey time is just over seven hours. There is also one service per day arriving at Aberdeen from Leeds. These services are operated by HST sets, as the line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen is not electrified.
[edit] Inverness
A daily service operates between Kings Cross and Inverness, called The Highland Chieftain, it leaves at 1200, but may leave earlier on Sundays due to engineering works. The journey time is just over eight hours. This route is also operated with diesel HSTs, as the line north of Edinburgh is not electrified. The stations served are:
- Peterborough
- York
- Newcastle Central
- Edinburgh Waverley
- Edinburgh Haymarket
- Falkirk Grahamston
- Stirling
- Gleneagles
- Perth
- Pitlochry
- Kingussie
- Aviemore
- Inverness
Other smaller Scottish stations (such as Carrbridge) are served by the Sunday southbound service.
[edit] Hull
GNER continue to run The Hull Executive between Hull and Kings Cross. This leaves Hull at 07.00 and arrives in London at 09.47. The return journey leaves Kings Cross at 17.20 and arrives in Hull at 20.02. Since the branch to Hull is not electrified, this route too is operated using diesel HST sets.
[edit] Bradford Forster Square
There are two trains per day between Kings Cross and Bradford. From Bradford there is a morning departure at 06.30 (arriving Kings Cross at 09.08), and an evening train leaving at 19.13 and arriving at 22.04. From Kings Cross, there are two afternoon departures: at 15.35 (arriving in Bradford 18.30), and 17.33 (arriving 20.24). These are extensions of the Kings Cross–Leeds services and usually utilise the ‘Mallard’ electric sets.
[edit] Skipton
There is a morning train from Skipton and Keighley to Kings Cross with an early evening return. As is the case with the Bradford trains, this is an extension to the Leeds–London service. Though the line to Skipton is electrified throughout, the GNER service to/from the town is operated using a diesel HST, because the electrical infrastructure on the Leeds to Skipton line was not designed to handle trains as powerful as the Class 91 locomotives. The test run of a Class 91 on the line caused a voltage drop large enough to halt every other electric train on the line.
[edit] Harrogate
There is a Monday-Saturday morning HST departure from Harrogate to Kings Cross. However, there is no return journey so passengers are required to change at Leeds or York on to Northern Rail services to Harrogate.
The Saturday running of this service is the week's only GNER southbound service from Leeds not to call at Wakefield Westgate. This service departs from Leeds and heads along the Selby line to join the East Coast Main Line at Hambleton.
Calling points on the Harrogate service:
- Horsforth (stops to pick up passengers only, Monday to Friday only)
- Leeds
- Wakefield Westgate (Monday to Friday only)
- Doncaster
- Peterborough
- Stevenage (Monday to Friday only)
- London Kings Cross
[edit] Rolling Stock
Unlike most other UK train companies, GNER continues to use only vehicles which were designed and built (or, in a small number of cases, specified) by the former state corporation British Rail - most of the rolling stock was built as long ago as the late 1970s (HSTs) or 1990 (225s). GNER’s primary rolling stock are InterCity 225 electric trainsets, each comprising a Class 91 electric locomotive, nine Mark IV coaches, and a driving van trailer. These sets were refurbished by Bombardier Transportation in 2003-2006 and are known as ‘Mallard’ in honour of the record-setting Mallard steam locomotive. They boast re-designed interiors and new features such as ‘Wi-Fi’ wireless Internet services and electrical sockets at every seat pair.
For routes where the infrastructure for electric trains is absent or inadequate, or to cover for shortages of electric sets, they also use the older diesel-electric InterCity 125 High Speed Train sets, which use two Class 43 locomotives with either eight or nine slam-door Mark 3 coaches. As part of their commitments for the new franchise, they have agreed to upgrade these trains in a fashion similar to the Mallard project. [7]
The 225 ‘Mallard’ electric sets are all allocated to Bounds Green depot in north London, whilst the diesel HST fleet is allocated to Craigentinny in Edinburgh. The depots at Neville Hill in Leeds and Heaton in Newcastle carry out light maintenance and stabling.
Until December 2005, this fleet was supplemented by five (three of which were used per day) Class 373 high-speed trains leased from Eurostar, which operated the White Rose service between London and Leeds. Three of these had been adapted to GNER’s livery through the use of vinyl ‘wraps’, while the others retained its Eurostar colours. These trains have since been withdrawn and returned to Eurostar.
GNER purchased and for some years used the unique Class 89 Co-Co prototype electric locomotive 89001 Avocet that had previously been briefly used by BR (in the end, the simpler Class 90 was adopted as a successor to classes 81-87). 89001 served mostly on the Leeds route until it failed in 2001.
[edit] Current fleet
| Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Routes operated | Built | |
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| mph | km/h | ||||||
| InterCity 225 Mallard |  |
Carriages drawn by electric locomotive | 140 | 225 | 30 | East Coast Main Line | 1990 |
| InterCity 125 High Speed Train | |
Carriages drawn by two diesel-electric locomotives | 125 | 200 | 11 | East Coast Main Line | 1976 – 1982 |
[edit] Past fleet
| Class | Type | Built | Withdrawn | Notes |
| Class 373/3 Regional Eurostar | Electric multiple unit | 1993 | December 2005 | Currently stored at North Pole depot |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
| Preceded by: InterCity As part of British Rail |
Operator of East Coast Main Line franchise 1996-present |
Succeeded by: N/A |
| Domestic: | Arriva Trains Wales - c2c - Central Trains - Chiltern Railways - First Capital Connect First Great Western - First ScotRail - Grand Central1 - GNER - Heathrow Connect Hull Trains - Island Line2 - Merseyrail - Midland Mainline - Northern Rail Northern Ireland Railways3 - 'one' - Silverlink - Southeastern - Southern South West Trains2 - TransPennine Express - Virgin Trains |
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| International: | Enterprise3 - Eurostar |
| Airport Link: | Gatwick Express - Heathrow Express - Stansted Express4 |
| Sleeper: | Caledonian Sleeper5 - Night Riviera6 |
| 1 Starts 20 May 2007 - 2 To be replaced by the South Western franchise in February 2007 3 Operated on the Irish railway network - 4 Operated by 'one' - 5 Operated by First ScotRail 6 Operated by First Great Western |
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| Future passenger train operators in Great Britain | |
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| New Franchises: | Cross Country1 - East Midlands1 - London Overground1 - South Western2 West Midlands1 |
| Proposed open-access operators: |
Grand Union3 - Wrexham & Shropshire4 |
| 1 Starts November 2007 - 2 Starts February 2007 - 3 Proposed - 4 Awaiting Approval | |
