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Former British railway company

Great North Eastern Railway, often referred to as GNER, was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by Sea Containers, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North East England and Scotland from April 1996 until December 2007. During March 1996, Sea Containers was awarded the franchise to operate the East Coast services; it begin operations on 28 April 1996. Initially receiving a favourable reception, the company brought in several service alterations and innovations, including the leasing of Class 373 Regional Eurostars along with the refurbishment of the InterCity 225 fleet. However, GNER's reputation and passenger numbers were both hit by a pair of derailments during the early 2000s, the Hatfield rail crash and the Great Heck rail crash. Plans to procure a fleet of tilting trains based on the Pendolino were mooted by the company, but were discarded amid a protracted and complex refranchising process. During March 2005, the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the East Coast franchise to GNER for a second time; however, the terms for this second franchise period were financially demanding, seeing the withdrawal of subsidies and enactment of charges to the British Government. Concerns over the viability of such payments, as well as the general financial condition of Sea Containers were well founded, with the latter entering bankruptcy in November 2006. Following its inability to fulfil agreed payments, GNER was stripped of the franchise during December 2006, although it continued to run services on the route for another year via a management contract. The final northbound GNER train was the 20:30 London King's Cross – Newcastle on 8 December 2007; the company was replaced by the new franchisee National Express East Coast one day later.

The creation of the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) is closely associated with the privatisation of British Rail that was enacted during the mid 1990s; as a result of new government policies, railway operations were to be operated by various private sector companies working under a franchise arrangement. Accordingly, the InterCity East Coast franchise was one such franchise created to take over operations of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) from British Rail. According to industry periodical Rail, the East Coast franchise was commonly viewed as one of the better franchises to bid for, as the ECML had been electrified only a few years before hand and was being served by the newest intercity stock in British Rail's inventory, the InterCity 225; the line also had a well established reputation for its high speed services. Accordingly, numerous private companies submitted bids to the Office for Passenger Rail Franchising. The initials GNER were reminiscent of the historic London and North Eastern Railway (LNER, no relation to the current train operating company), the company that operated the route before being nationalised as part of British Railways in 1948. Additionally, the name combined the initials of two of the LNER's predecessor companies, the Great Northern Railway (GNR), who had built King's Cross station, and the Great Eastern Railway (GER). GNER made further links to the past companies by adopting a dark blue livery with red trimming lines for its trains, similar to that used by the GER, and using a Victorian coat of arms style crest on their trains. The company's image was professionally designed by Vignelli Associates, an Italian design house; it was responsible for the train liveries and interiors, staff uniforms and overall corporate identity. Their website states "The Great North Eastern Railway logo emphasises the NE. The train has a new livery, dark blue with a bright red stripe containing all necessary information. It has a crest, a required tradition, and sober interiors for both first and tourist class." Operations commenced on 28 April 1996. GNER's submission had included its plan to purchase a fleet of 25 tilting trains, similar to the British Rail Class 390 Pendolinos then being introduced on the West Coast Main Line; this were envisioned to feature multiple types of propulsion, being divided between electric and diesel powered examples so that they could serve all of the franchise's destinations. During October 2004, the Strategic Rail Authority issued the Invitation to Tender for the InterCity East Coast franchise to the four shortlisted bidders, Danish State Railways/English Welsh & Scottish, First, GNER and Virgin Rail Group. The bidding process was described as being highly competitive, several of the bidders were reportedly determined to dislodge the incumbent GNER. The terms of the new franchise had considerable differences from that of the original period; instead of GNER receiving subsidies for its operations, it would be instead paying the British state for the privilege of doing so; there was reportedly concerns over the financial viability of such an arrangement from the onset. During July 2006, the High Court rejected GNER's judicial review over the Office of Rail Regulation's decision to allow rival train operating company Grand Central to operate trains along part of the ECML, – and in particular its right to call at York, one of the principal (and lucrative) stops on the ECML. GNER had made its application partly on the basis that 'open access' train operators are not required to meet the same fixed costs for accessing Network Rail's infrastructure as train operating companies running services under a contract or 'franchise' with the Department for Transport. GNER's case failed principally because the High Court determined that not only did European law permit the Rail Regulator to establish a charging regime for open access operators which was different from the one which applies to franchised operators (such as GNER), in this case not imposing a fixed charge on open access operators, but that if he had not done so, he would have been acting illegally because of the very different conditions under which open access operators and franchised operators get access to the network. The High Court (Mr Justice Sullivan) refused GNER permission to appeal. That same month, GNER announced that its chief executive officer, Christopher Garnett, was to step down, having occupied that position since Sea Containers had originally been awarded their first franchise. Amid growing industry speculation that Sea Containers was working towards a "financial restructuring", the company's President and Chief Executive Bob Mackenzie was named as Garnett's successor. The firm's problems were further fuelled by GNER's poor profitability, which had been linked to the company's overbidding for the franchise coupled to what proved to be crippling premium repayments to the government. The company blamed the effects of the 7/7 terrorist attacks, increased electricity prices, and increased competition from low cost airlines for the decline in passenger numbers. It also faced a growing challenge from the revitalised West Coast services operated by Virgin Trains. The company attempted to address the problem by waiving booking fees on internet sales, cutting staff numbers, and raising fares and car parking charges where the market could bear it. In a press interview in September 2006, GNER's ex chief Christopher Garnett hinted at a bleak future for GNER and the franchising system, claiming that the trend among TOCs to overbid for the renewal of franchises would result in a financially unsustainable railway. In October 2006, Sea Containers filed for bankruptcy protection under the US Chapter 11 process, therefore allowing the company to continue trading while it sorted out its finances. However, this meant that the company was unable to fulfil its guarantees in respect to its GNER subsidiary, greatly increasing the risk exposure of the latter's operations. Despite this announcement, GNER continued to operate the franchise under a management contract, which was extendable for up to two years, while the Department for Transport undertook the selection of a new franchisee. In April 2007, it was announced that GNER had a 10% stake in the bid lodged by Stagecoach & Virgin. In August 2007, the Department for Transport awarded the franchise to National Express, and GNER's services transferred to National Express East Coast on 9 December 2007.

GNER's principal routes were from London King's Cross to Leeds and Edinburgh Waverley. From Edinburgh Waverley, selected services continued on to Motherwell and Glasgow Central, Inverness, or Aberdeen. From Leeds, some trains ran to and from Bradford Forster Square, Skipton, and Harrogate. One service per day also ran to and from Hull via Selby. Other towns and cities served by GNER trains included Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, Wakefield, Shipley, Keighley, Horsforth, Brough, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Morpeth, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Berwick upon Tweed, Dunbar, Motherwell, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars, Arbroath, Montrose, Stonehaven, Falkirk, Stirling, Perth, Pitlochry, Kingussie, and Aviemore.

The service between King's Cross and Leeds was generally hourly, with trains serving most main intermediate stations. With the completion of the Allington Chord, near Grantham, having increased track capacity, GNER began to operate a full half hourly service throughout the day on this route in May 2007.

A half hourly service between King's Cross and Newcastle operated for most of the day, departing from London on the hour and the half hour. The 'top of the hour' departures continued through to Edinburgh (with the 10:00 keeping the traditional name Flying Scotsman); some of these ran on to either Glasgow Central, Aberdeen or Inverness. These trains generally ran as limited stop expresses between London and Newcastle: all trains called at York, and most at Peterborough and Darlington, though afternoon and evening departures from King's Cross ran non stop to Doncaster or York. The trains leaving King's Cross on the half hour generally terminated at Newcastle and served other intermediate stations such as Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster and Durham as well as Peterborough, York, and Darlington.

GNER operated ten trains per day between King's Cross and Glasgow. With the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between London Euston and Glasgow to 125 mph completed, GNER could no longer compete with Virgin Trains on this route in terms of journey times (5hrs 30mins compared to the new 4hrs 25min time on the WCML), but they did provide a link from Glasgow to Newcastle and York and a secondary route for use when the WCML was closed for engineering work.

There were three trains per day each way between King's Cross and Aberdeen, the journey time being just over seven hours. There was also one service per day arriving at Aberdeen from Leeds. These services were operated using a diesel InterCity 125 because the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line and the section of the Cross Country Route between Leeds and York are not electrified.

A daily service operated between King's Cross and Inverness, named the Highland Chieftain, a journey taking just over 8 hours. The service was operated using a diesel InterCity 125, as the line north of Edinburgh is not electrified.

GNER ran the Hull Executive from Hull Paragon to London King's Cross, with one morning journey down to London and one evening journey up to Hull. The service was operated by a diesel InterCity 125, as the line to Hull is not electrified. More regular services between London King's Cross and Hull Paragon were operated by Hull Trains.

There were two trains per day between London and Bradford Forster Square. These were extensions of the King's Cross–Leeds services and were operated using an electric InterCity 225. Some of these services were also operated using a Class 89 electric locomotive, Mark 4 coaches and a DVT until 2001.

There was a morning train from Skipton and Keighley to King's Cross with an early evening return. As with the Bradford trains, this was an extension to the Leeds–London service. Though the line to Skipton is electrified throughout, the GNER service to/from the town operated using a diesel InterCity 125 because the electrical infrastructure on the Leeds to Skipton line at the time was unable to provide sufficient power to support an InterCity 225 alongside the existing electric local services.

There was a Monday Saturday morning departure from Harrogate to King's Cross. However, there was no return journey so passengers were required to change at Leeds or York on to Northern Rail services to Harrogate. This service was operated using a diesel InterCity 125 as the line to Harrogate is not electrified. The Saturday running of this service was the week's only GNER southbound service from Leeds not to call at Wakefield Westgate. This service departed from Leeds and took the Selby line to join the East Coast Main Line at Hambleton.