InterCity East CoastInterCity East Coast InterCity East Coast is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom from London King's Cross to Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. It was formed during the privatisation of British Rail and transferred to the private sector in April 1996. Initially operated by Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), it was later operated by National Express East Coast, East Coast and Virgin Trains East Coast. In June 2018 the franchise was terminated and the trains and stations taken back into public ownership; since then, services are provided by London North Eastern Railway (LNER), a company owned by the Department for Transport. InterCity East Coast History Great North Eastern Railway
The franchise was to be for 20 years and included proposals for new trains and replacements of sections of track. In January 2002, the SRA scrapped the refranchising process and awarded a two-year extension to Sea Containers until April 2005.
GNER committed to pay a £1.3 billion premium to the Department for Transport (DfT) over ten years. However, due to the financial problems caused by it having overbid as well as financial difficulties encountered by the parent company, in December 2006 the government announced it was stripping the franchise from Sea Containers and would put it up for re-tender, with GNER running the franchise on fixed fee management contract in the interim. National Express East Coast
East Coast Main Line Company The franchise was re-nationalised on 14 November 2009 with Directly Operated Railways' subsidiary East Coast taking over, with the intention being that operations would return to a private franchisee by December 2013. In March 2013, the Secretary of State for Transport announced that this would be put back to February 2015. Virgin Trains East Coast
Secretary Grayling claimed the losses were due to VTEC simply overestimating future growth in passenger revenue in its bid calculations, meaning franchise payments due to the government exceeded the profits being returned by running the services, while others believe the delays in state owned Network Rail delivering expected infrastructure upgrades meant the company could not operate the increased number of services needed to generate this increased revenue. Termination was brought forward in February 2018 to June 2018. London North Eastern Railway On 16 May 2018, Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling announced the franchise would be terminated on 24 June 2018 and renationalised. A partnership of Arup Group, Ernst & Young, and SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit provided assistance to the government in their preparation to take control of the franchise from VTEC and it is currently operated by DOHL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Department of Transport. InterCity East Coast Rolling Stock At inception the franchise inherited and operated a fleet of InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 trains. These were refurbished with new interiors in the mid-2000s, the former of which were retired in December 2019, the latter were due to be retired in 2020. All to be replaced by Class 800/801s. It was announced in February 2020 that LNER will retain a number of Class 91s and Mk 4s to enable it to meet December 2021 timetable requirements. InterCity East Coast Overview InterCity East Coast Current Operator: London North Eastern Railway InterCity East Coast Main Route(s): East Coast Main Line InterCity East Coast Fleet Size: 7 InterCity 225 sets 23 Class 800 Azuma sets 42 Class 801 Azuma sets InterCity East Coast Stations Called At: 53 InterCity East Coast Dates of Operation: 28 Apr 1996 – 8 Dec 2007 9 Dec 2007 – 13 Nov 2009 14 Nov 2009 – 28 Feb 2015 1 Mar 2015 – 23 Jun 2018 24 Jun 2018 – onwards InterCity East Coast Technical Track Gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) InterCity East Coast Length: 632 kilometres (393 mi) InterCity East Coast Operating Speed: 125 mph London North Eastern Railway Route Inverness Carrbridge Aviemore Kingussie Newtonmore Blair Atholl Pitlochry Dunkeld & Birnam Perth Gleneagles Dunblane Stirling Falkirk Grahamston Aberdeen Stonehaven Montrose Arbroath Dundee Leuchars Kirkcaldy Inverkeithing Glasgow Central Motherwell Haymarket Edinburgh Waverley Dunbar Reston Berwick-upon-Tweed Alnmouth Morpeth Sunderland Newcastle Durham Darlington Middlesbrough Thornaby Northallerton Skipton Keighley Bradford Forster Square York Shipley Harrogate Horsforth Hull Paragon Brough Selby Leeds Wakefield Westgate Doncaster Retford Lincoln Newark Northgate Grantham Peterborough Stevenage London King's Cross | |||||
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