Great North Eastern Railway - GNER Services/GNER's Principal Routes - C

Great North Eastern Railway - C

GNER Services

GNER's principal routes were from London King's Cross to Leeds and Edinburgh Waverley.

From Edinburgh Waverley, selected services continued on to Motherwell and Glasgow Central, Inverness, or Aberdeen. From Leeds, some trains ran to and from Bradford Forster Square, Skipton, and Harrogate.

One service per day also ran to and from Hull via Selby. Other towns and cities served by GNER trains included Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, Wakefield, Shipley, Keighley, Horsforth, Brough, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Morpeth, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Motherwell, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars, Arbroath, Montrose, Stonehaven, Falkirk, Stirling, Perth, Pitlochry, Kingussie, and Aviemore.

GNER Principal Routes

• GNER London-Leeds

The service between King's Cross and Leeds was generally hourly, with trains serving most main intermediate stations. With the completion of the Allington Chord, near Grantham, having increased track capacity, GNER began to operate a full half-hourly service throughout the day on this route in May 2007.

• GNER London-Newcastle-Edinburgh

A half-hourly service between King's Cross and Newcastle operated for most of the day, departing from London on the hour and the half-hour. The 'top of the hour' departures continued through to Edinburgh (with the 10:00 keeping the traditional name Flying Scotsman), some of these ran on to either Glasgow Central, Aberdeen or Inverness. These trains generally ran as limited-stop expresses between London and Newcastle: all trains called at York, and most at Peterborough and Darlington, though afternoon and evening departures from King's Cross ran non-stop to Doncaster or York. The trains leaving King's Cross on the half-hour generally terminated at Newcastle and served other intermediate stations such as Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster and Durham as well as Peterborough, York, and Darlington.

• GNER London-Glasgow

GNER operated ten trains per day between King's Cross and Glasgow. With the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between London Euston and Glasgow to 125 mph completed, GNER could no longer compete with Virgin Trains on this route in terms of journey times (5hrs 30mins compared to the new 4hrs 25min time on the WCML), but they did provide a link from Glasgow to Newcastle and York and a secondary route for use when the WCML was closed for engineering work.

GNER Minor Routes

• GNER London/Leeds-Aberdeen

There were three trains per day each way between King's Cross and Aberdeen, the journey time being just over seven hours. There was also one service per day arriving at Aberdeen from Leeds. These services were operated using a diesel InterCity 125 because the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line and the section of the Cross Country Route between Leeds and York are not electrified.

• GNER London-Inverness

A daily service operated between King's Cross and Inverness, named the Highland Chieftain, a journey taking just over 8 hours. The service was operated using a diesel InterCity 125, as the line north of Edinburgh is not electrified.

• GNER London-Hull

GNER ran the Hull Executive from Hull Paragon to London King's Cross, with one morning journey down to London and one evening journey up to Hull. The service was operated by a diesel InterCity 125, as the line to Hull is not electrified. More regular services between London King's Cross and Hull Paragon were operated by Hull Trains.

• GNER London-Bradford

There were two trains per day between London and Bradford Forster Square. These were extensions of the King's Cross–Leeds services and were operated using an electric InterCity 225. Some of these services were also operated using a Class 89 electric locomotive, Mark 4 coaches and a DVT until 2001.

• GNER London-Skipton

There was a morning train from Skipton and Keighley to King's Cross with an early evening return. As with the Bradford trains, this was an extension to the Leeds–London service. Though the line to Skipton is electrified throughout, the GNER service to/from the town operated using a diesel InterCity 125 because the electrical infrastructure on the Leeds-to-Skipton line at the time was unable to provide sufficient power to support an InterCity 225 alongside the existing electric local services.

• GNER London-Harrogate

There was a Monday-Saturday morning departure from Harrogate to King's Cross. However, there was no return journey so passengers were required to change at Leeds or York on to Northern Rail services to Harrogate. This service was operated using a diesel InterCity 125 as the line to Harrogate is not electrified.

The Saturday running of this service was the week's only GNER southbound service from Leeds not to call at Wakefield Westgate. This service departed from Leeds and took the Selby line to join the East Coast Main Line at Hambleton.

Great North Eastern Railway Overview

Great North Eastern Railway Franchise(s): InterCity East Coast
28 April 1996 – 8 December 2007
Great North Eastern Railway Main Region(s):
London
East of England
East Midlands
Yorkshire
North East England
Scotland
Great North Eastern Railway Fleet Size:
11 InterCity 125 HST sets
31 InterCity 225 sets
Great North Eastern Railway Stations Called At: 53
Great North Eastern Railway Stations Operated: 12
Great North Eastern Railway Parent Company: Sea Containers
Great North Eastern Railway Reporting Mark: GR
Great North Eastern Railway Predecessor: InterCity
Great North Eastern Railway Successor: National Express East Coast

GNER Route Map

Inverness
Perth
Stirling
Aberdeen
Dundee
Glasgow Central

Edinburgh Waverley
Newcastle
York
Leeds
Hull

Doncaster
Peterborough
London King's Cross