London North Eastern Railway

In November 2017, the then 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 (VTEC), who had been due to pay more than £2 billion in franchise premiums to the government over the last four years of its contract.[4][5]

This was brought forward in February 2018 to mid-2018. The Department for Transport (DfT) 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.[6][7][8] 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.[9][10] The DfT also announced that LNER would be the long-term brand applied to the InterCity East Coast franchise.[11] 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.[12]

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.[13][14]

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.

As of May 2020, the current off-peak service pattern is:[15]

An expanded service to Lincoln began on 21 October 2019 when four terminating services at Newark Northgate were extended into Lincoln.[16] 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.[17] From December 2019, LNER introduced a Harrogate to London service 6 times a day.[18] 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.[19][20] The Middlesbrough service is expected to begin in December 2021 after infrastructure work required to run the service is completed.[21]

Future destinations include a proposed service to Middlesbrough, 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.[22] 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.[23]

Three generations of East Coast Main Line trains at York. A Class 43 InterCity 125 (left) with a Class 800 Azuma (centre) and a InterCity 225 (right)

LNER inherited a fleet of InterCity 125 and InterCity 225s from Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC). Since September 2016, VTEC had hired three Class 90s 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.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26][27][28][29] As of November 2020, all units in the Azuma fleet have now entered service with the exception being 800109 which was the unit involved in the derailment at Neville Hill TMD in November 2019 and is yet to re-enter service.[30]

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.[31] 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.[32] In September 2020, Eversholt Rail Group and London North Eastern Railway extended their lease to 10 by 2023. In addition, there are options to make it operational until 2024. It will be overhauled at the Wabtec Doncaster plant.[33][34]

At the end of service on 15 January 2021, the remaining serviceable InterCity 225 sets went into storage and are currently not in service. The sets are planned to return to service in summer 2021 after engineering works at King's Cross station have been completed as part of the East Coast Upgrade.[35]

Current fleet

Trainset	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Notes
				mph	km/h
Locomotive hauled sets
InterCity 225	91		Electric locomotive	140	225	12	7 sets formed of 9 carriages each	Seating Map Not in service and in storage as of 15 January 2021.
	Mark 4		Passenger carriage			135
	Driving Van Trailer		Control car			8
Multiple units
Hitachi AT300	800/1 Azuma		Bi-mode multiple unit	140	225	13	9	Seating Map
	800/2 Azuma					10	5
	801/1 Azuma		Electric multiple unit			12	5
	801/2 Azuma					30	9

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.[36] Nine of the fourteen HST sets transferred to East Midlands Railway, with 2 power cars from one set transferring to CrossCountry to supplement its existing 5 sets.[37]

Set	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Transferred to
				mph	km/h
InterCity 125	43		Diesel locomotive	125	200	32	14 sets formed of 9 carriages each	East Midlands Railway (23) CrossCountry (2) Storage (7)
	Mark 3		Passenger carriage			130		East Midlands Railway (78) Storage Scrapped
InterCity 225	91		Electric locomotive	140	225	17	17 sets formed of 9 carriages each	Europhoenix (2) Stored (15) D.A.T.S. (2)
	Mark 4		Passenger carriage			158		Transport for Wales (12) Stored (127) Scrapped (19)
	Driving Van Trailer		Control car			19		Transport for Wales (3) Stored (15) Scrapped (1)

London North Eastern Railway has only one depot. The rest of its fleet maintenance is bought in.

• Aberdeen Clayhills Carriage Maintenance Depot, managed by LNER
• Bounds Green TMD, London – for heavy duty maintenance of IC225 sets, managed by Hitachi
• Doncaster Carr Rail Depot, managed by Hitachi
• Neville Hill TMD, Leeds – managed by East Midlands Railway and Northern
• Heaton TMD, Newcastle – managed by Northern
• Craigentinny TMD, Edinburgh – managed by Hitachi

Media related to London North Eastern Railway at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website