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GNER services names

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43000

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i m new here and this is my first post.
really nice forum.

just wondered what is the meaning of the names of some of GNER services such as "The Highland Chieftain" to Inverness or "The Northern Lights" to Aberdeen (one of 4 daily) etc.....
except of being written on the timetable - what is it for?

and another one - why GNER operate only 1 service every day to / from Hull, skipton, Bradford and harrogate?

thanks!
 
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43000 said:
i m new here and this is my first post.
really nice forum.

just wondered what is the meaning of the names of some of GNER services such as "The Highland Chieftain" to Inverness or "The Northern Lights" to Aberdeen (one of 4 daily) etc.....
except of being written on the timetable - what is it for?

and another one - why GNER operate only 1 service every day to / from Hull, skipton, Bradford and harrogate?

thanks!

Harrogate dont even get a service back in the evening!
 

yorkie

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43000 said:
i m new here and this is my first post.
really nice forum.

just wondered what is the meaning of the names of some of GNER services such as "The Highland Chieftain" to Inverness or "The Northern Lights" to Aberdeen (one of 4 daily) etc.....
except of being written on the timetable - what is it for?

and another one - why GNER operate only 1 service every day to / from Hull, skipton, Bradford and harrogate?

thanks!
Welcome to the forum :)

Highland Chieftain is obvious ;) Perth-Inverness is a fantastic journey along the Highland mainline, my favourite part is Pitlochry-Kingussie, and if you ever do get the chance, it is well worth going on!

As for Northern Lights, it's so named because "you can see the Northern Lights, or to give it its proper name, the Aurora Borealis. Aberdeen is far enough north to catch this spectacle".

Service names are traditional and it is nice to see GNER keep that tradition.

There is some more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNER

The Hull, Skipton, Bradford & Harrogate services are just to provide a direct service for people from those areas to visit London, they are not part of the core route. The morning services from Skipton/Bradford/Harrogate are also used by early morning commuters to Leeds.

Heading north, they are too late to be of any use for commuters within Yorkshire, and a Harrogate service can't be justified in this direction.
 

43000

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yorkie said:
Welcome to the forum :)

Highland Chieftain is obvious ;) Perth-Inverness is a fantastic journey along the Highland mainline, my favourite part is Pitlochry-Kingussie, and if you ever do get the chance, it is well worth going on!

As for Northern Lights, it's so named because "you can see the Northern Lights, or to give it its proper name, the Aurora Borealis. Aberdeen is far enough north to catch this spectacle".

Service names are traditional and it is nice to see GNER keep that tradition.

There is some more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNER

The Hull, Skipton, Bradford & Harrogate services are just to provide a direct service for people from those areas to visit London, they are not part of the core route. The morning services from Skipton/Bradford/Harrogate are also used by early morning commuters to Leeds.

Heading north, they are too late to be of any use for commuters within Yorkshire, and a Harrogate service can't be justified in this direction.



understand it, thanks.
but stil don't understand why only 1 of the 3 daily services between London KX to Aberdeen is called "The Northern Lights" and only 1 of the services to Edinburgh/Glasgow is called "The Flying Scotman"?
sorry i m petty, but i m a bit difficult to undersatnd (i m not living in GB. lived there for 6 months during 2004 and became a british rail freak)
 

Max

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43000 said:
understand it, thanks.
but stil don't understand why only 1 of the 3 daily services between London KX to Aberdeen is called "The Northern Lights" and only 1 of the services to Edinburgh/Glasgow is called "The Flying Scotman"?
sorry i m petty, but i m a bit difficult to undersatnd (i m not living in GB. lived there for 6 months during 2004 and became a british rail freak)

Welcome to Rail UK :)

I guess it's mainly beccause many years ago, the North Eastern Railway Company would have operated one service a day under these names. I presume the Flying Scotsman would have once been non-stop (or virtually non-stop) to Edinburgh. Of course this is not the case now, but GNER are just keeping one train a day designated under this name for purposes of traditional, and to make their image look more friendly and less generic.

The Northern Lights is GNER's principal and flagship service to Aberdeen, so this is why it retains the name. Not all the trains can have names ;)

May I also remind you of the special name for the Hull direct service of the Hull Executive :lol:
 

Tom B

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Hi

Again I think it's a tradition thing. For example the LNER used to call a specific departure from KX "The Flying Scotsman" for publicity reasons - I think GNER has just carried this on.
 

devon_metro

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Much with fGW who used to run the Torbay Express, not sure if the name is still caried now though :(
 

Julian G

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AlexS said:
Much the same as Virgin operate the Royal Scot, the Black Countryman and so forth.
Does the name "Sussex Scot" still exists?
 

Techniquest

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There's the Caledonian and Royal Scot on the fastest Pendo Primos on EUS - GLC still I think.

FGW still (up to April at least) used 'The Golden Hind' and others. 'The Atlantic Coast Express' will be back for either the Pembroke Dock or Newquay HSTs.
 

ChrisCooper

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MML have the Master Cutler (Leeds to St Pancras and return), the Robbin Hood (Sheffield to St Pancras via Nottingham and return to Nottingham) and the Midland Express (Sheffield to London via Derby). The up MC is a particularly interesting run, since it is none stop from Chesterfield to London, being one of the few trains schedualed to run down the whole Erewash Valley line (most turn off towards Nottingham), and being the only train schedualed to not stop at Leicester. The down run is more normal, running none stop to Leicester then following the same calling pattern as most Sheffield services. All 3 run to London in the morning, arriving between 9:00 and 10:00, and the MC an RH return around 17:00. The MC and RH should be operated by a pair of specially formed HSTs, with an additional first class coach and one less standard class coach. The only traditional Intercity TOC that doesn't have named trains is 'one', but Anglia never did either, and I think it's been many years since named trains ran on the GEML, well before privatisation. There used to be the Broadsman, the East Anglian, the Hook Continental (Liverpool St to Harwich boat train), the Norfolk Coast Express and the Norfolkman at least. I don't think any of them survived electrification, although the boat train did run until 2004, but without it's traditional name. The Broadsman name is used by both the North Norfolk and Bure Valley railways though.
I personally think named trains are great, since they are a harmless connection with history, epecially when so much else has changed and is changing. Saldly though many vandles think that they are something that needs to be destroyed, since they are old fasioned, and don't fit in with their business or marketing school new thinking, something Virgin were drawn in by. Then again, I do wonder if their desision to bring them back along with the new penolino service was a cheap marketing ploy to bring some history, class, and "the golden age of trains" into their services, convieniently glossing over the fact that it was them who got rid of them just a few years before.
 

theblackwatch

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yorkie said:
Heading north, they are too late to be of any use for commuters within Yorkshire, and a Harrogate service can't be justified in this direction.

Back in the 1980s there used to be 2 through services from KX to Harrogate, this was later dropped to just one, and in the early 90s was even operated by 91+Mk. 4s, normally hauled from Leeds-Harrogate by a 'generator' duff. It was dropped pre-GNER.
 

43000

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theblackwatch said:
Back in the 1980s there used to be 2 through services from KX to Harrogate, this was later dropped to just one, and in the early 90s was even operated by 91+Mk. 4s, normally hauled from Leeds-Harrogate by a 'generator' duff. It was dropped pre-GNER.

from GNER timetable i could notice that they don't operate service northbound from KX to Harrogate, but every morning they operate service from there sothbound to KX. where the train from? also the same story with the 06:15 service from Peterborough to KX.
 

theblackwatch

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ikar said:
But I think that the Harrogate one starts from Neville HIll Depot in Leeds.

That's correct - it tends to be cancelled about once a week too!
 

Max

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theblackwatch said:
That's correct - it tends to be cancelled about once a week too!

And the Hull one never seems to have a full (or even any) buffet ;)

I think GNER must forget about us 'inferior' towns :lol:
 
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