East Coast (train operating company)

East Coast

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Overview
Franchise(s)	InterCity East Coast 14 November 2009 – TBA
Main region(s)	East Midlands, Yorkshire, North East England, Central Scotland, Northern Scotland
Other region(s)	London
Fleet	31 Class 91 electric locomotives 30 InterCity 225 sets 11 InterCity 125 (HST) sets 5 Class 180
Stations called at	53
Stations operated	12
Parent company	Directly Operated Railways
Reporting mark	GR
Other
Website	www.dft.gov.uk/dor/

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

East Coast will be a train operating company in the United Kingdom, running high speed passenger services on the East Coast Main Line between London and Scotland from 14 November 2009.

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

The government stated it would temporarily re-nationalise the franchise and transfer the assets of NXEC to Directly Operated Railways, which would retain the NXEC service levels, before re-tendering the franchise in 2010.

East Coast will operate long distance passenger services principally from London King's Cross to Edinburgh via Newcastle, and from King's Cross to Leeds, with other services reaching into Yorkshire and Scotland.

Principal routes

All services will continue to run as the same timetable until December 2009 (this is when the next timetable change is due to happen). All services here are shown as National Express East Coast current services. London-Glasgow services will be cut short as far as Edinburgh from 2010.

London–Newcastle–Edinburgh

A half-hourly service between Kings Cross and Newcastle operate for most of the day, departing from London on 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 Flying Scotsman), with a two-hourly extension to Glasgow Central. These trains generally run as limited-stop expresses between London and Newcastle: all trains call at York, and most at Peterborough and Darlington, though afternoon and evening departures from Kings Cross run non-stop to Doncaster or 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.

London–Leeds

The service between Kings Cross and Leeds is generally half-hourly, with all trains serving Leeds and Wakefield, most trains serving Doncaster and Peterborough and some serving Newark, Retford, Grantham and Stevenage.

Other routes

Aberdeen

There are three trains per day each way between Aberdeen and King's Cross, departing 1030 (The Northern Lights), 1400 and 1600, the journey time being 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 Aberdeen and Edinburgh is not electrified.

Inverness

A daily service operates between Inverness and King's Cross called the Highland Chieftain. The journey takes just over eight hours, departing at 0755. This service is operated with diesel HST sets, as the lines to Dunblane and Inverness are not electrified.

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.

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 National Express East Coast service to/from the town is operated using a diesel HST because the electrical infrastructure on the Leeds to Skipton line is insufficient to support a Class 91 locomotive and the class 333 EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) that operate the local services from Leeds to Skipton

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 National Express East Coast 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.

Bradford Forster Square

One train per day run between Forster Square and King's Cross in each direction. In December 2009, this service will increase in frequency to 'every other train', or one train per hour. December 2009 also sees the start of a Bradford Interchange - London Kings Cross service operated by Grand Northern Railway, sister company to Grand Central Railway.

Rolling stock

Current fleet

East Coast will inherit the rolling stock operated by NXEC, which encompasses Class 43 diesel locomotives and 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 2007.

East Coast will offer free Wi-Fi to passengers in both first and standard class.

Trainset	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated
				mph	km/h
InterCity 125	Class 43		Diesel locomotive	125	200	30	London Kings Cross-Aberdeen London Kings Cross-Inverness London Kings Cross-Edinburgh London Kings Cross-Hull London Kings Cross-Skipton London Kings Cross-Harrogate Leeds-Aberdeen London Kings Cross-Newcastle
	Mark 3 coach		Passenger carriage	125	200	117
InterCity 225	Class 91		Electric locomotive	140	225	31	London Kings Cross-Leeds London Kings Cross-Edinburgh London Kings Cross-Glasgow Central London Kings Cross-Bradford Forster Square London Kings Cross-Newcastle
	Mark 4 coach		Passenger carriage	140	225	302
			Driving Van Trailer	140	225	31

Future fleet

In March 2008 National Express made an application for additional track access to a number of destinations. In this application they indicated that the additional services would be operated using Class 180 Adelante DMUs. In the event that National Express is able to procure the Adelantes, it will then not proceed with its plan for the Class 90 hauled trains.

Currently Northern Rail are sub-leasing 3 Adelante units. These are being sub-leased from National Express East Coast, meaning 3 Adelante units are confirmed for National Express East Coast. 2 extra units for NXEC have also been leased, bringing the current total of leased Adelantes to 5 units.

Directly Operated Railways has stated its unhappiness with the Class 180 units for the planned additional services specified in the franchise agreement, and has indicated that it wishes to return to the original proposal of using locomotive hauled trains instead. The original plan was for 110 mph (180 km/h) trains pulled by Class 90 locomotives. However, DOR has raised the possibility of obtaining Grand Central's three 125 mph (200 km/h) capable HSTs for these services, for which it would transfer the Class 180s under lease to NXEC, giving Grand Central a single, uniform fleet.

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Introduction
			mph	km/h
Class 180		Diesel multiple unit	125	200	5	2010

Future High Speed Train

As part of the new InterCity East Coast franchise agreement, National Express would have participated in the Intercity Express Programme, which would see a new high-speed train enter service. The project is intended to replace all of the remaining InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 rolling stock in operation, and would have seen National Express be one of several operators from 2012/2013 onwards. It is likely that is will happen after East Coast has been privatised once again.

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Introduction
			mph	km/h
Hitachi Super Express	File:Hitachi Super Express rendering.jpg	Diesel multiple unit Electric multiple unit Electro-diesel multiple unit	125	200	60+	2013

External links

• East Coast official website (Under construction)
• Department for Transport Directly Operated Railways
• Department for Transport InterCity East Coast franchise