Great North Eastern Railway (GNER): Data & Information

Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), owned by Sea Containers Ltd, operated high-speed express train services on the East Coast Main Line from April 1996 until 9th December 2007 when the franchise was taken over by National Express East Coast. GNER's primary service routes were from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley and Leeds. Selected services to/from Edinburgh Waverley continued to/started from Glasgow, Inverness, or Dundee & Aberdeen. Selected services to/from Leeds continued to/started from Bradford, Skipton, and Harrogate. One service per day also ran to and from Hull via Selby. GNER was originally awarded a seven-year franchise in April 1996 to run what had been the InterCity East Coast division of British Rail. The company was later granted a two-year extension allowing it to operate trains until 2005. When this franchise expired, it won a renewal until 2015, overcoming rival bids from Danish State Railways, First London, Scottish and North East Railway, and inter city-railways (a consortium of Deutsche Bahn, Stagecoach Group, and Virgin Group). For this new franchise, GNER's annual payment to the government was increased to four times the previous amount. As a result, the company said that it was likely to raise fares and make job cuts. On 15th December 2006, the Department for Transport announced that it was to terminate GNER's franchise to operate the East Coast Main Line, due in part at least, to lower-than-expected revenue figures by GNER. In October 2006, Sea Containers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Virgin Trains/Stagecoach Group, FirstGroup plc and National Express Group all submitted bids for the franchise. On 14th August 2007 it was announced that the National Express Group had been awarded the franchise, operating under the name of National Express East Coast. GNER continued operating the route until the new franchise started on 9 December 2007.