East Coast (train operating company)

East Coast

Info
Franchise(s):	InterCity East Coast 14 November 2009 – February 2015
Main region(s):	East Midlands, Yorkshire, North East England, Central Scotland, Northern Scotland
Other region(s):	London
Fleet size:	31 Class 91 electric locomotives 32 InterCity 225 sets 14 InterCity 125 (HST) sets
Stations called at:	53
Stations operated:	12
National Rail abbreviation:	GR
Parent company:	Directly Operated Railways
Web site:	www.eastcoast.co.uk

East Coast Route
Legend
Inverness Carrbridge Aviemore Kingussie Newtonmore Blair Atholl Pitlochry Dunkeld Perth Gleneagles Dunblane Stirling Falkirk Aberdeen Stonehaven Montrose Arbroath Dundee Leuchars Kirkcaldy Inverkeithing Glasgow Central Motherwell Haymarket Edinburgh Waverley Dunbar Berwick-upon-Tweed Alnmouth Morpeth Newcastle Durham Darlington Northallerton York Skipton Keighley Bradford Forster Sq Shipley Harrogate Horsforth Leeds Wakefield Westgate Hull Brough Selby Doncaster Retford Lincoln Central Newark North Gate Grantham Peterborough Stevenage London King's Cross

East Coast is a British train operating company running high-speed passenger services on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. It started operations on 14 November 2009.

East Coast is a trading name of East Coast Main Line Company Ltd (ECMLCo), a subsidiary of Directly Operated Railways Limited, formed by the Department for Transport as an operator of last resort when National Express refused further financial support to its National Express East Coast (NXEC) subsidiary and consequently lost its franchise.

The government temporarily re-nationalised the franchise in late 2009 and transferred NXEC's assets to Directly Operated Railways, allowing services to continue until the franchise could be re-let. The original intention was to return operations to a private franchisee by December 2013, however in March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced that it would in fact now be returning to a private franchisee by February 2015, this could be as a result of questions arrising over the franchising system following the 2012 West Coast franchise cancellation.

East Coast operates long-distance passenger services principally from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley via Newcastle, and from King's Cross to Leeds, with other services reaching into Yorkshire and Northern and Central Scotland.

Principal lines

London–Newark/York

An hourly service runs between King's Cross and Newark, calling at all intermediate stations. This is extended to York every two hours, serving Retford and Doncaster. These services operate only on weekdays.

London–Leeds

The service between King's Cross and Leeds is half-hourly, with one train per hour serving Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds, while the other serves Stevenage, Grantham, Doncaster, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds. At weekends, they call at Stevenage every two hours while Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Doncaster and Wakefield are served hourly.

London–Newcastle

A half-hourly service between King's Cross and Newcastle operates for most of the day, departing from London on the hour and the half-hour. The top-of-the-hour trains to Scotland run as limited-stop expresses between London and Newcastle (as seen below). The half-hour train calls at Peterborough, Newark, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. This train is extended to Edinburgh every two hours throughout the day and calls at Alnmouth. At weekends, especially during the daytime, all Newcastle services continue to Edinburgh, with some going non-stop.

London-Edinburgh

There is an hourly service from London to Edinburgh, calling at York, Darlington, Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh. Some of these trains also call at Peterborough. Occasionally there is a half-hourly service to Edinburgh with some Newcastle trains extended at peak hours. From 22 May 2011 a new early-morning service runs southbound, departing Edinburgh at 05:40, calling only at Newcastle at 07:03 and arriving at London at 09:40, called the Flying Scotsman. It is operated using an Intercity 225 set with 91101 with Flying Scotsman branding. At weekends during the day, services to London from Edinburgh run every 30 minutes.

A Map of East Coast Services showing the service pattern each hour and extensions.

Other lines

Glasgow

There is now only one direct through train per day in each direction between King's Cross and Glasgow Central as an extension of the hourly London-to-Edinburgh service. A faster and much more frequent service to Glasgow operates from London Euston via the West Coast Main Line. There is no East Coast service to Glasgow on Saturdays, and no East Coast service to London from Glasgow on Sundays.

Aberdeen

There are three trains per day each way between Aberdeen and King's Cross, departing at 10:00 (The Northern Lights), 14:00 and 16:00, the journey time being just over seven hours. There is also one service per day in each direction between Aberdeen and Leeds. These services are operated by HST sets, as the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line and York to Leeds section via Garforth are not electrified. This route makes use of the historic Forth and Tay bridges. These trains are extensions to the hourly London-to-Edinburgh service.

Inverness

A daily service operates between Inverness and King's Cross, departing at 12:00, called the Highland Chieftain. The journey takes just over eight hours and is operated with diesel HST sets, as the line between Edinburgh and Inverness is not electrified. As with the Aberdeen services, this is an extension of the London-to-Edinburgh service.

Hull

The Hull Executive runs between Hull and King's Cross, with one train per day each way. This service also uses HSTs as the Hull line is not electrified. Much more frequent services between Hull and London are operated by First Hull Trains.

Lincoln

From May 2011 there is now a direct train from London to Lincoln Central, with one service per day in each direction as an extension of the London-to-Newark service.

Skipton

There is a morning train from Skipton and Keighley to King's Cross with an early evening return. Shipley is served towards King's Cross only.

As with the Bradford train, this is an extension of the Leeds–London service. Though the line to Skipton is electrified throughout, the East Coast service to/from the town was operated using a diesel HST because the electrical infrastructure on the Leeds to Skipton line was insufficient to support a Class 91 locomotive in addition to the class 333 EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) that operate the local services from Leeds to Skipton.

However, tests took place on 16 January 2011 for the operation of a Class 91 and Mark 4s on this service.^{citation needed} From the timetable starting 22 May 2011, the evening return train from Kings Cross is worked by a Class 91 and Mark 4 set (Monday - Fridays only).

The Saturday run of the outward service is the only East Coast service out of Leeds not to call at Wakefield Westgate: from Leeds, this service takes the route via Micklefield and Hambleton Junctions on to the ECML to Doncaster.

On a Sunday only a Northbound service runs.

Harrogate

There is a Monday-Saturday morning HST departure from Harrogate to King's Cross also calling at Horsforth (Monday to Fridays only). There is now a return service from London Kings Cross to Harrogate leaving at 17:33.

Bradford Forster Square

One train per day in each direction runs between Bradford Forster Square, Shipley and King's Cross via Leeds.

Rolling stock

Current fleet

East Coast inherited the rolling stock operated by NXEC, comprising Class 43 diesel sets with their Mark 3 coaching stock (InterCity 125), and Class 91 electric locomotives and Mark 4 coaches (InterCity 225).

The original franchise holder, GNER, undertook a major refurbishment of its rolling stock from 2003, which it titled "Project Mallard". Between 2003 and 2006, every Mark 4 coach in its fleet was upgraded and refurbished, while work started on refurbishing the Mark 3 coaches under GNER in early 2007. This work continued under NXEC, with the final InterCity 125 set completed in October 2009.

Until October 2010, East Coast offered free Wi-Fi to passengers in both first and standard class. From 5 October 2010, a charge of £4.99 per hour or £9.99 for 24 hours was introduced for Standard Class passengers, with a 15-minute free allowance.

As part of an overhaul of the Mark 4 coaches, the coaches and DVTs are being repainted from the current mix of GNER/NXEC interim livery, to a new silver livery dubbed 'Silver link'. The repaint was started in June 2010 with the first full set (excluding loco) being released on 30 July 2010. The idea is that a plain base livery can be easily customised for any future operator of the franchise.

Trainset	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated
				mph	km/h
InterCity 125	Class 43		Diesel locomotive	125	200	32	London Kings Cross-Newark North Gate, Lincoln, Leeds, Harrogate, Skipton, Hull, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen & Inverness
	Mark 3 coach		Passenger carriage	125	200	117
InterCity 225	Class 91		Electric locomotive	140	225	31	London Kings Cross-Leeds, Bradford Forster Square, Skipton, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh & Glasgow Central
	Mark 4 coach		Passenger carriage	140	225	302
			Driving Van Trailer	140	225	31

Intercity Express Programme

Main article: Intercity Express Programme

The holder of the new East Coast franchise will participate in the Intercity Express Programme along with First Great Western. The project will replace the Intercity 125 fleet with new Hitachi high-speed trains, and provide additional electric trains. By December 2018 the new trains are planned to be running on the East Coast main line in 9-carriage or 5-carriage sets. The programme also contains an option for 30 further units that would replace the Intercity 225 trains used by East Coast.

Cancelled future fleet

Originally East Coast were to receive five Class 180 Adelante DMUs. Due to a reduction in the number of extra services, and with Directly Operated Railways stating its unhappiness with the Class 180 units, they are no longer required and will not be used by East Coast. Instead, the five Class 180 units were sent to First Great Western for use between London and the Cotswold Line.

East Coast investigated using one 11-coach Pendolino from July 2011 but decided instead to lease an extra HST set from East Midlands Trains, in use from 22 May 2011 (though it has been used before, in a very mixed set as it was seen with East Coast 43206, East Midlands Trains mk.3s and East Midlands Trains VP185 engined 43074) bringing the number of HSTs leased to 14.

Locomotive naming

The fleet of Class 91 locomotives inherited by East Coast has carried various names up until 2008. In 2011, in response to customer requests, East Coast resumed the practice. It began by naming No. 91109 as Sir Bobby Robson, unveiled in a ceremony at Newcastle Central Station on 29 March 2011 by his widow Elsie and Alan Shearer, patron of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, which the company was also now a supporter of.

On 2 June 2012 East Coast Class 91 No 91110 was renamed "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" by Carol Vorderman at the National Railway Museum as part of the Railfest 2012 Event.

In February 2013, the company announced that one of their trains would be named "Skyfall" after the James Bond film of the same name, which featured trains extensively and became the highest-grossing film of all time in the United Kingdom.

Performance

The latest performance figures to be released by NR (Network Rail) rate East Coast's performance up on the same period last year. This period (period 2 of 2013/14), punctuality rose just over 2 percentage points to 89.4% PPM and the moving annual average also rose slightly up from 83.9% to 84.1% (up to 25 May 2013).

External links

• Official website
• Department for Transport Directly Operated Railways
• Department for Transport InterCity East Coast franchise

Preceded by National Express East Coast InterCity East Coast franchise

Operator of InterCity East Coast franchise 2009 - 2013

Incumbent