European Railroad Discussion > Escaped Eurostars

My wife was scanning through some UK news websites today and came across and article that stated that Great North Eastern had leased three spare Eurostar train-sets to work additional express trains between London KX and Leeds. The expansion of services coincides with the completion of resignalling and upgrading of Leeds City station. The fastest train of the day is scheduled to cover the 187 miles between Leeds and London in 119 mins - that\'s an average of 97.8 mph - if you are counting, with a standard time of 155 mins. Leeds is rapidly overtaking Manchester as the commercial capital of Northern England. Reports suggest that some 53 trains each weekday connect travel the Leeds-London corridor. Peter+

Please read the next post dated 28-05-02 23.43pm PST

The fastest train from Leeds to London is The Yorkshire Pullman and is a diesel HST running through from Skipton. If anyone wants to know which trains are Diesel (HST), electric (E) loco\'s or hired Eurostars (EMU) look at

www.gner.co.uk

and go to timetables as at the head of the column GNER details the type of train.
The hired Eurostars are restricted to 125 mph between King\'s Cross and Grantham and 110 mph Grantham to Doncaster, 100mph Doncaster to Wakefield 85 mph Wakefield to Leeds. They are vinyled in GNER livery but as the north of london Eurostar sets are all in operating condition you can expect a white and yellow one as well. Three sets are in use every day, 2 on Saturdays & Sundays.
There are other restrictions on the use of Eurostars north of London due to their length.
Only 2 platforms are long enough at Leeds and London King\'s Cross at other stations the doors on the first 2 passenger coaches and the back 2 passenger coaches may not open and passengers are warned to walk forward or back as necessary.

AFAIK GNER is still just leasing the three eurostar sets it has leased for a couple of years(?) now, they have only just been cleared to Leeds though, so get to be used a little more intensively.

This story seems to be an attempt to get a positive railway news story out there to coincide with the new government chappie covering railways. Or am I just getting cynical! :-)

It is nice to read a positive media story about britain\'s railways though.

Martyn Read
Exeter, Uk

When I was in the UK in Feb., 2002 a GNER employee told me that GNER was going to lease addditional Eurostars and that they would have six sets in service by this June.

He also told me the sets in service were terminating at York but would soon be extended to Leeds. I did see a blue & gold Eurostar set in York on two occasions.

Is this accurate information?

Not sure, maybe they are getting three more then...

They leased two originally (plus a third as standby), and they could only work "off-peak" services to the south of York due to the power demands they have. I have a digi-pic of one at York I took a while ago, I think I still have it on my PC at home.

That they would be used to Leeds instead was somewhat expected once the Leeds rebuilding project had happened, but extra trainsets would be a big surprise.

There were 7(?) North-of-london Eurostar sets built IIRC so there would be enough there for them to lease 3 extra, and GNER have lost i\'m guessing just over a complete set of Mk4 coaching stock due to the Hatfield and Selby accidents (including two catering vehicles).

I\'m pretty sure these will turn out to be the three they had already, but maybe I\'m just too much of a pessimist. ;-)

Most of the reports do say that they are newly leased, but the one on GNER\'s site says that they are new trains as well, which is far from the truth (although they have been sat unused for a long time!)

Up to Sat 1 st June GNER have hired 2 north of London Eurostar sets with the option of a third acting as a spare.They have run from King\'s Cross to York and it was always their intention that from June 2002 they would run King\'s Cross to Leeds but with the loses at Hatfield and Heck in coaching stock they are hiring 3 Eurostar sets with a fourth one acting as spare. They are to run 7 days per week. One of the other north of London Eurostar sets will be used for testing the new high speed line across Kent from this autumn.
Just a further point Leeds is by far the second financial centre of the UK, it overtook Manchester over 10 years ago.

So they are hiring *one* extra, that\'s a bit more beleivable!

Don\'t you just love the popular press! <grin!>

Thanks for the additional info guys. I have attached a shot of a Eurostar trainset that was running between Kings Cross and York. I do not have my notes handy but I think the location is Peterborough.

Let me try this again!

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Yes, indeed. While visiting London in April 2001 this Kentucky hillbilly did a little \'fanning out the GNER line north of Kings Cross. There was a Eurostar consist parked at GNER\'s coach yard north of the station in its original colors and this guy was parked at the bumper post when I got back. Looks pretty regal in that color scheme, I must say!

Seems to me it was on an Edinburgh schedule that day.

Looking back, it wouldn\'t have been suprising to have seen Harry Potter himself walking along the platform in this, one of the world\'s grand railway terminals.

da timecruncher

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Okay, after reading the replies to the original thread, that Eurostar consist was probably not headed for the hills of Scotland after all.

It still looked mighty fine to this Amtrak-weary traveler!

da timecruncher