London North Eastern Railway


London North Eastern Railway is a British train operating company owned by the Department for Transport, unlike most UK train operating companies. LNER operates the InterCity East Coast franchise providing long-distance inter-city services on the East Coast Main Line from London King's Cross to North East England and Scotland. LNER manages 12 stations itself and its trains call at 55 stations in total.
The company is owned by the Department for Transport. LNER took over the InterCity East Coast franchise in June 2018, after the previous privately owned operator Virgin Trains East Coast returned it to the government following sustained financial difficulties. The DfT intended for the company to provide services until a new public–private partnership could be established in 2020. In July 2019, it was announced that LNER had been given a direct-award to run services beyond 28 June 2020 until 2025, making it the longest franchise on the East Coast Main Line since GNER.

History

In November 2017, the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, announced the early termination of the InterCity East Coast franchise in 2020, three years ahead of schedule, following losses on the route by operator Virgin Trains East Coast, who had been due to pay more than £2 billion in franchise premiums to the government over the last four years of its contract.
This was brought forward in February 2018 to mid-2018. The Department for Transport decided to either negotiate a deal with VTEC to continue to run the franchise on a temporary non-profit basis while a new franchise competition was conducted, or to arrange for VTEC be taken over by the DfT's operator of last resort. On 16 May 2018 it was announced that the latter had been decided and that LNER would take over from VTEC on 24 June 2018. The DfT also announced that LNER would be the long-term brand applied to the InterCity East Coast franchise. As part of the overall strategy for the East Coast franchise, the Secretary of State for Transport stated that Great Northern services could potentially be integrated into the operation when the Thameslink Southern & Great Northern franchise expires in 2021.
LNER is the second time that a government appointed operator of last resort has taken control of the InterCity East Coast franchise; between 2009 and 2015 the franchise was operated by East Coast following National Express East Coast defaulting.
The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four companies which operated between 1923 and 1948.

Services

As of May 2020, the current off-peak service pattern is:
An expanded service to began on 21 October 2019 when four terminating services at were extended into Lincoln. This is in addition to the sole one train per day service, which in all, now provides five out and back workings to and from London King's Cross. LNER also plans for December 2019 timetable change that a sixth return service to London from Lincoln will be introduced and 5 extra services on a Saturday will begin from 7 December 2019. From December 2019, LNER introduced a Harrogate to London service 6 times a day. LNER expects to introduce two-hourly services to Bradford and a daily service to Huddersfield in May 2020 when more Azuma trains have been introduced. The Middlesbrough service is expected to begin in December 2021 after infrastructure work required to run the service is completed.
Future destinations include a proposed service to, though the Rail Minister, Jo Johnson, told Parliament that it was dependent on the Azumas being brought into service on the ECML and other schemes in progress that would provide sufficient capacity to enable the service to run. An additional constraint is the lack of a suitably long enough platform at Middlesbrough, which would necessitate a new build at an estimated cost of £20 million.

Named trains

London North Eastern Railway operates a number of named passenger trains:
NameOriginDestinationOther details
Flying ScotsmanEdinburgh WaverleyLondon King's CrossService began 1862 in both directions; named by LNER in 1924. Now Edinburgh to London and only stops at Newcastle railway station for a driver/crew swap.
Highland ChieftainLondon King's CrossInvernessThe longest LNER route
Northern LightsLondon King's CrossAberdeen
West Riding LimitedBradford Forster SquareLondon King's CrossOperates from Bradford to London only.

Rolling stock

LNER inherited a fleet of InterCity 125 and InterCity 225s from Virgin Trains East Coast. Since September 2016, VTEC had hired three s from DB Cargo for use on services to Newark, York and Leeds. LNER inherited these locomotives and retained them until June 2019 to cover for the shortage of Class 91 locomotives.
In May 2019, the first lot of Class 800 trains began entering service with the Class 801 trains also following on in September. These units are based on the Hitachi A-train design and LNER retained the Azuma brand for the units which was originally designated by VTEC. The initial operation of these units allowed the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets to be replaced gradually. The first Azuma train to enter service was a 9-carriage 800/1 on 15 May on the Leeds route from King's Cross. Other subclasses of the 800 and 801 variants entered service afterwards, with the first two 5-carriage 801/1 sets entering service on 16 September operating as a 10-carriage train, the first lot of 5-carriage 800/2 sets entering service to coincide with the launch of the new King's Cross - Lincoln services on 21 October and the first two 9-carriage 801/2 sets entering service on 18 November. This means the whole Azuma class has entered service, but not all units are ready for service yet.
Following the withdrawal of the InterCity 125 fleet in December 2019, it was previously thought that the InterCity 225 fleet would be fully withdrawn by June 2020. However, LNER announced on 29 January 2020 that they would be retaining a limited number of the InterCity 225 fleet to deliver all of the benefits of their December 2021 timetable. LNER later confirmed that they would be keeping 10 sets in service.

Current fleet

Past fleet

The takeover from the Azuma fleet has allowed all fourteen of LNER's HST sets to be withdrawn from service. The last three sets with LNER worked their last services on 15 December 2019. Nine of the fourteen HST sets transferred to East Midlands Railway.

Depots

London North Eastern Railway has four main depots: