East Coast Trains

East Coast Trains[1] is a future open access operator in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup. It has been granted permission by the Office of Rail & Road to operate up to five return services per day between London King's Cross and Edinburgh via the East Coast Main Line from October 2021.[2]

This article is about the future open access operator. For the former train operating company, see East Coast (train operating company). For the current train operating company, see London North Eastern Railway.

East Coast Trains
Franchise(s)Open-access operator
Not subject to franchising
Starts Autumn 2021
Stations called at6
Parent companyFirstGroup

History

In 2015, the Office of Rail & Road called for expressions of interest for open access operators to bid for extra paths on the East Coast Main Line. In May 2016, FirstGroup were granted a track-access agreement for five services in each direction from October 2021.[3][4][5] In March 2019, it was announced operations would begin in autumn 2021.[6]

Services
East Coast Trains
 Edinburgh ( St Andrew Square)
 Morpeth
 Newcastle
Stevenage
 London King's Cross

East Coast Trains will operate five services a day in each direction between London King's Cross and Edinburgh calling at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth.[5]

Operations

FirstGroup intends to compete with existing rail, coach and air services on the London-Edinburgh route by offering tickets with an average fare price of £25 and free Wi-Fi connectivity for all passengers.[7] The service will not have 1st class seating in any of the fleet, so all five trains will be standard class only.

Rolling stock

In March 2019, East Coast Trains ordered a fleet of five 5-car 125mph AT300s.[6][8] All trains will have buffet cars and only one class of seating accommodation, with no first class carriages available.[5][9][10] They will be electric and will also be fitted with batteries in case of any failures with the overhead line equipment.[11]

Trainset  Class  Image  Type   Top speed   Number   Carriages   Routes   Built 
mph km/h
Hitachi AT300 803 EMU 140 225 5 5 Edinburgh Waverley - London King's Cross 2020
    gollark: Yes, but if you make them, they get run at certain stages of something.
    gollark: Ah, but if you put commands in them, they get run or something, during X whatevering.
    gollark: Something like that.
    gollark: ~/.xinitrc
    gollark: ~/.xprofile

    References
    1. Companies House extract company no 8765536 East Coast Trains Limited
    2. 2020-05-01T06:00:00+01:00. "Edinburgh – London open access service takes shape". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
    3. Applications for the East Coast Main Line Office of Rail & Road 12 May 2016
    4. First Group to run Edinburgh to London budget rail service BBC News 12 May 2016
    5. VTEC and FirstGroup granted East Coast Main Line paths Railway Gazette International 12 May 2016
    6. FirstGroup and Hitachi announce new partnership for high speed trains linking London and Edinburgh Rail Professional 21 March 2019
    7. Budget East Coast Train Service Is Approved Sky News 12 May 2016
    8. Trains ordered for 2021 launch of high-quality, low fare London - Edinburgh service Railway Gazette International 21 March 2019
    9. "First Group launches London - Edinburgh open access plans" Rail issue 770 18 March 2015 page 20
    10. "First Group plans ECML service" Today's Railways UK issue 161 May 2015 page 13
    11. First orders AT300s for ECML open access operation RAIL 876 p.20
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.