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Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) was owned by Sea Containers Group.

GNER operated the InterCity East Coast franchise from 1996 to 8th December 2007, running trains from London King's Cross to Yorkshire and Scotland.



Trains running north beyond Edinburgh served Glasgow Central (via Carstairs), Aberdeen (4 trains a day) and Inverness (1 train a day).

GNER's first term franchise started on 28 April 1996 for seven years, later extended another 2 years to April 2005. GNER won a second term, starting 1st May 2005 for seven years with a further three years if specified performance targets are met. However, GNER found that terms of new franchise it had agreed were unsustainable, and combined with the financial difficulties of its parent group, led to the franchise being terminated early.

The GNER route was transfered to East Coast on 9th December 2007.

During the later years of its first term, GNER extended its HSTs to 9 coaches, started "Mallard" refurbishment of the thirty Mk.4 trains and introduced Wireless Internet - (WiFi) on its trains.

An HST refurbishment scheme was started by GNER, bringing them up to the same standard as the "Mallard" trains. The first refurbished HST entered service in March 2007.

GNER rolling Stock

• Electric Class 91 and Mk4 push-pull trains
• Diesel High Speed Trains (HSTs)
• Class 67 locos hired from DB Schenker to act as "Thunderbirds".
• Class 08 shunting locos for use at Craigentinny Depot.

GNER fleet

Original no.	New no.	Engine	Name	Admitted	Released	In service
43006	43206	MTU	Kingdom of Fife	24th October 2007
43008	43208	MTU		17th July 2007	1st October 2007	20th October 2007
43038	43238	MTU	City of Dundee	28th June 2007	29th August 2007	1st October 2007
43039		Valenta
43051		Valenta
43053		Valenta
43056		Valenta
43057		Valenta
43077		Valenta
43090	43290	MTU		23rd March 2006	15th December 2006	27th December 2006
43095		Valenta	Perth
43096	43296	MTU	Stirling Castle	15th May 2007	17th July 2007	21st July 2007
43099		Valenta
43100	43300	MTU	Craigentinny	23rd March 2006	1st December 2006	7th December 2006
43102		Valenta	Diocese of Newcastle
43105		Valenta	City of Inverness
43106	43306	MTU	Fountains Abbey	9th January 2007	12th March 2007*	3rd May 2007
43107		Valenta	Tayside
43108		Valenta	Old Course St. Andrews
43109	43309	MTU	Leeds International Film Festival	24th April 2007	28th June 2007	3rd July 2007
43110		Valenta	Stirlingshire
43111		Valenta	Scone Palace
43112		Valenta	Doncaster
43113	43313	MTU	The Highlands	1st October 2007	30th November 2007
43114	43314	MTU	East Riding of Yorkshire	30th November 2006	16th February 2007	21st February 2007
43115	43315	MTU	Aberdeenshire	30th November 2007
43116	43316	MTU	The Black Dyke Band	29th August 2007	30th October 2007	31st October 2007
43117		Valenta	Bonnie Prince Charlie
43118	43318	MTU	City of Kingston upon Hull	12th March 2007	15th May 2007	30th May 2007
43119		Valenta	Harrogate Spa
43120	43320	MTU	National Galleries of Scotland	23rd October 2006	9th January 2007	11th January 2007
43167	43367	MTU	Deltic 50 1955 - 2005	15th February 2007	24th April 2007	2nd May 2007

Bodyside adverts:

• 43051: Tutankhamun.
• 43099: WiFi is here,
• 43290: Leeds/London.
• 43039, 43367: Online booking.
• 43116, 43120: London 2012

91101	City of London
91102	Durham Cathedral
91103	County of Lincolnshire
91104	Grantham
91105	County Durham
91106	East Lothian
91107	Newark on Trent
91108	City of Leeds
91109	Samaritans
91110	David Livingstone	Named for the famous explorer
91111	Terence Cuneo	Named for the railway artist
91112	County of Cambridgeshire
91113	County of North Yorkshire
91114	St Mungo Cathedral	Named for the cathedral in Glasgow
91115	Holyrood
91116	Strathclyde
91117	Cancer Research UK
91118	Bradford Film Festival
91119	County of Tyne and Wear
91120	Royal Armouries
91121	Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
91122	Tam the Gun	Named for the gunner of the One o'clock gun
91124	Reverend W Audry	Named for the author of Thomas the Tank Engine
91125	Berwick upon Tweed
91126	York Minster
91127	Edinburgh Castle
91128	Peterborough Cathedral
91129	Queen Elizabeth II
91130	City of Newcastle
91131	County of Northumberland
91132	City of Durham	Originally numbered 91023

DVT - Driving Van Trailer

A few had vinyl names and advertising applied in the later years of the franchise

82219 named Duke of Edinburgh from the original Mallard set
82217 Off to the Races
82218 International Indian Film Acadeny Awards (from June 2007)
82224 Passionate People Passionate Places

Named Trains

• The Flying Scotsman: 1S11 1000 London KX - Edinburgh, 1E15 1200 Glasgow C. - London KX
• The Northern Lights: 1S12 1030 London KX - Aberdeen, 1E10 0955 Aberdeen - London KX
• The Highland Chieftain: 1S15 1200 London KX - Inverness, 1E12 0755 Inverness - London KX

See Also

External Links

• GNER website
• GNER Press Release: New Management Agreement
• DfT: Intercity East Coast franchise