East Coast HST in York bay platforms, Friday 6th April

[nightstar.train]

I was in York station about three o'clock on Friday afternoon (the 6th) and saw an East Coast HST terminated in the South facing bay platforms. Now I didn't think East Coast ran trains only London - York, I thought they all went further like Newcastle or beyond. So was it:

a) A regular service, and if so how long have they been going on and why an HST, not an electric train?

B) A special service, for the Easter weekend maybe?

c) It had broken down and terminated at York.

 

Just curious, and I'm sure RMWEB will know the answer.

[beast66606]

1N81, 09:08, London Kings Cross - York is an example of the service you didn't think existed

[Bomag]

1N81, 09:08, London Kings Cross - York is an example of the service you didn't think existed

 

Given that EC have indicated how much they like Glasgow by withdrawing most of the trains I am not surprised Tom was unaware of theses services.

 

Tom

 

The whole EC timetable was recast to make it 'better' (I think is was last December but time flies) . This involved removing most, if not all, Glasgow services and using the capacity for increases stopping services to York. I have no idea of any benefit to travelers from York and stations to KX but the morning services from Leeds to KX are worse.

 

As for it being a HST, it was probably an infill to allow the HST to get back to KX in time to do one of the peak services which run off wires. Also when I was working in CE Anglia in 89/90 and visited KX east side offices when they were testing the Mk4s one of the Mech Engs told me that an HST could out accelerate a 91 up to about 75mph and the break even point was about 95mph i.e. putting 4500 hp through 8 axles was better than 6300hp through 4 axles. Therefore, putting HSTs on stoppers is less likely to impact paths.

[The Stationmaster]

Given that EC have indicated how much they like Glasgow by withdrawing most of the trains I am not surprised Tom was unaware of theses services.

 

Tom

 

The whole EC timetable was recast to make it 'better'. This involved removing most, if not all, Glasgow services and using the capacity for increases stopping services to York. I have no idea of any benefit to travelers from York and stations to KX but the morning services from Leeds to KX are worse.

 

Having made a couple of trips on the ECML to 'a station south of York' this change does seem to be one for the better in that respect - but on my most recent trip the loadings were relatively poor and I hope they give business time to adjust to and take advantage of the change before they go for yet another rewrite.

[beast66606]

Given that EC have indicated how much they like Glasgow by withdrawing most of the trains I am not surprised Tom was unaware of theses services.

 

So was I until I looked at the timetable ...

[hmrspaul]

Having made a couple of trips on the ECML to 'a station south of York' this change does seem to be one for the better in that respect - but on my most recent trip the loadings were relatively poor and I hope they give business time to adjust to and take advantage of the change before they go for yet another rewrite.

 

Booked in advance these trains are much cheaper than the through York services that they follow out of York. they take longer but... an HST may be unusual, the services are usually 225 electrics. I didn't know about one at 09.08, but there at least another 4 during the day, leaving just after the even hours.

 

Paul Bartlett

[nightstar.train]

 

The whole EC timetable was recast to make it 'better' (I think is was last December but time flies) . This involved removing most, if not all, Glasgow services and using the capacity for increases stopping services to York. I have no idea of any benefit to travelers from York and stations to KX but the morning services from Leeds to KX are worse.

 

 

Yes, make the service 'better'. As you observe I live in Glasgow, and often travel to see my dad, who lives near Cambridge and will collect me from Peterborough. So the recast of the timetable has greatly disadvantaged me as there is now only one through service a day by East Coast, and it's at stupid times in both directions (first train South and last one North off the top of my head). So I have to go through Edinburgh usually. Last time I did I was hurrying from the EC train to the connecting Scotrail one and tripped over because of the works in Waverly and broke my glasses.

 

Thanks for the info everyone, interesting to see the new timetable. I just found it funny, as you don't ever really think of an HST as being something that you can park in a bay platform. But then York is a VERY big station, just swallows trains up.

 

Tom

 

Posted from a Cross Country Voyager that does go through to Glasgow.

[Richard E]

HST is also seen on the 18:01 departure probably once in every 4 or 5 days, the rest of the time it is 225 sets. The service was introduced when the timetable was revised in May 2011.

 

It makes 2 more stops than the Newcastle/Edinburgh services being Retford and Grantham. They run at 10:01, 12:01, 14:01, 16:01 and 18:01.

 

Leeds services were cut back in that timetable review as well. There was a proposal to eliminate the 07:51 stop at Peterborough leaving the only trains as 07:06 and then 07:56 arriving at 09:26. There was quite a bit of lobbying from the Norfolk area by big business to maintain the connection so they added it back in at 07:45.

 

The biggest nuisance, believe it or not, was retiming the afternoon departure to 17:30 instead of 17:21 and making it a stopper at Doncaster and Newark instead of non-stop. Of course that is all about revenue, not convenience to those wanting to use an InterCity service.

 

EDIT - if anyone is interested I still have a copy of the original revised timetable (Eureka) that was issued prior to the changes.