The LNER Encyclopedia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25340545

Can anyone shed any light on this? Who now are GNER?

GNER is the name used by Alliance Rail, who are an open access outfit wanting access on both the WCML and ECML. They are majority owned by Arriva (who are in turn owned by DB). Alliance is fronted by Ian Yeowart, an ex Regional Railways manager who started up Grand Central.

The ECML plans are expected to be released at midday today.

Thanks for that Andy, mystery solved!

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Andy W wrote:GNER is the name used by Alliance Rail, who are an open access outfit wanting access on both the WCML and ECML. They are majority owned by Arriva (who are in turn owned by DB). Alliance is fronted by Ian Yeowart, an ex Regional Railways manager who started up Grand Central.

The ECML plans are expected to be released at midday today.

Wonder why he left Grand Central.

Other than the Morpeth curve I can't think of many places where tilting is going to be of any great benefit on the ECML, unless you include the unwired section beyond Edinburgh.

Nice to see apple green livery, though.

Grand Central and Alliance are sister companies, both owned by Arriva (DB). The late Tom Clift came into GC to replace Ian Yeowart when the Alliance venture was started up and Ian went full time on that. Tom was later replaced at GC by Richard McLean, who also heads up the Tyne & Wear Metro.

Tom was due to start at Hull Trains as their MD but unfortunately he died on holiday in Scotland the week before he was due to start. A great loss to the industry as he was a very good railwayman.

I'm sure the BBC mock-up says "Hitachi" on the front rather than Alstom, but here's a press release from Arriva - http://www.arriva.co.uk/media_centre/pr ... sc_lang=en

The original BBC picture was pulled from a previous Alliance press release but the new photo on todays Alliance release uses a photo shopped image of a Pendo.

They seem to be going for 9 car Pendos on an hourly KX-Edinburgh service. Newcastle only stops are being hinted at but the promised briefing docs haven't been published yet.

Andy W wrote:Newcastle only stops are being hinted at

They'll still get held at Chevington for the 1738 to Chathill.

Always fills me with dread when them mention the "P" word. How about fitting tilting gear to the MK4s. they are based on the APT coaches.

Ay up!

Those Mk4s could do with some decent bogies - those they have are jiggly to the point of distraction.....

Blink Bonny wrote:Ay up!

Those Mk4s could do with some decent bogies - those they have are jiggly to the point of distraction.....

.... rather lively over pointwork I've always thought : To my mind, the 373s, while they were on "The White Rose" service, seemed to give a smoother ride in that particular way.

Whilst the ECML south of Croft has relatively few speed restricting curves, north of Croft there are plenty, and the Pendolino will make a real difference on the 130 or so miles in this section

Timetabling will be "interesting" but the idea is so much in the spirit of the East Coast it just has to succeed.

I know this has nothing to do with pendolinos I read in arailway magazine a couple of monthes back that eurostar still own a number of ECML slots both north and south and at the present time they are lent out