September 20, 2004
Great North Eastern Railway (GNER)
This was mentioned in the posting on the Hatfield Crash.
GNER is a TOC running express trains along the east coast from London to Edinburgh. It is owned by Sea Containers, a firm run by James Sherwood. It is run by Chris Garnett.
GNER has one of the best reputations of any TOC. Whether this is due to its own merits or the fact that the line and rolling stock were upgraded only five years before it took over is a matter for debate. That it has the best livery of any TOC is not.

A selection of GNER trains at Kings Cross
Trackbacks
Comments
GNER's livery, despite being a corporate scheme that wasn't originally designed for trains, works very well, and has a lot more class than the many of the psychadelic liveries dreamed up by spotty design consultants. Even the disability legislation hasn't ruined it!
Is the image distorted, or does the farthest train in the picture have an especially pointy nose, like a high-speed TGV or Shinkansen?
The farthest train is a high-speed TGV. It is in fact a kind of Eurostar which itself is a kind of TGV.
It owes its existence to one of the more embarassing chapters in the Channel Tunnel's history.
On the subject of rail liveries, a couple of years ago I was talking to a rail executive about this. He explained to me that liveries were not the product of expensive design consultancies but mainly the result of one not-particularly expensive one-man design consultancy.
You get what you pay for.
The GNER acquitted itself well in the past two weeks. I was doing a bit of riding along the old LNER, on a rail pass, and whenever I had the choice of a GNER train or one of the other operators, I opted for the GNER service and didn't regret it. There will be a compare and contrast of European and North American passenger operations at my site in the near future.
A little story about GNER. A couple of years ago, the overhead cabling blew down between Edinburgh and Newcastle, stranding me at Edinburgh. It took GNER 45 minutes from the lines coming down to having us climbing onto coaches for Newcastle. At Newcastle, an army of staff awaited to carry suitcases to the (waiting) train. On board the train were staff with mobiles who set about getting everyone into a seat - telephoning down the carriages to see where spaces remained. These people remained on board as the train set off for London, and worked their way down the train finding connections for everyone, and, failing a connection, taxis. We arrived in London a mere hour late. I was very impressed - I don't know if they can pull this off every time, but once is enough for me.
James Hamilton has hit the nail on the head. GNER have focuused their attention to ensuring the passenger is important and cared for. Both in first and second class, GNER staff are attentive and know their job to satisfy and advise on any difficulty.
Permalink
IN BRIEF
November 23, 2004
'Captain commuter' wins Sydney a free day on the trains
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Darling's saver ticket for slow-train Britain
- he's going to do everything but close them
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November 21, 2004
Tollroads Jamaican style
- worth it if only for the pic of the toll plaza
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November 20, 2004
Postive externalities come to DC
- sort of
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Railways safer than ever
- says Christian Wolmar
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Is graffiti art?
- LFTTR think the question misses the point. FWIW I think many artists clearly have a lot of talent and it's a shame they don't have an appropriate, nay, legal outlet.
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Book review
- Subterranean Railway by Christian Wolmar
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One airline, 4 crashes, 8 dead: the real price of sugar snap peas in November
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November 17, 2004
British Transport Films Collection DVD Volume One
- Surely a must for any transport afficionado. It will be released just in time for Christmas.
- Disc 1 - On The Rails
- Blue Pullman (1960)
- Elizabethan Express (1954)
- Train Time (1952)
- Rail 150 (1975)
- Diesel Train Driver (1959)
- On Track for the 80's (1980)
- Cybernetica (1972)
- Disc 2 - Off The Rails
- Under the River (1959)
- Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (1955)
- This Year - London (1951)
- This is York (1953)
- The Great Highway (1966)
- A Day of One's Own (1955)
- John Betjeman Goes By Train (1962)
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November 15, 2004
Crossrail website
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November 11, 2004
Brake fault forces Virgin to cut speed on flagship tilting trains
- you know, just for once it sounds as if the HSE could be right
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November 08, 2004
TV Alert
"When trains crash", 1930 Channel 5 tonight. Talk about timing
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November 07, 2004
Ufton Nervet crash
- 6 now confirmed dead
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November 06, 2004
One person dead as train derails
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November 04, 2004
FirstGroup wants to add the tracks to its trains
- that's brave
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November 02, 2004
Car charge to rise to £6
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October 30, 2004
Psst wanna buy a railway station?
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October 26, 2004
'Kart Vader'
- He tears around Quebec City at 100mph. In a go kart. At night. Wearing black. And he films it.
Spotted by Jay Jardine.
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October 24, 2004
The downside of auto-mobile bans
- drivers text instead
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Councils ban shrines to road crash victims
- a story that neatly combines both transport and the issue of the day: mawkish sentimentality
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October 20, 2004
The air hostess, the long hair and the sun roof
- one of the more imaginative ways of staying awake at the wheel.
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Wheelchair-using MP travelled in 'cattle truck'
- so, that's just the same as the rest of us then
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23 escape from burning train
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Wikipedia accuracy under fire
- so, it's back on with the
Glossary?
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October 19, 2004
Rail chief quits after four months
- walking away from £130,000. Golly
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October 14, 2004
New comment on old posting
- Tim Hall explains the story of the Highland Railway, its new locos and its soon-to-be-ex-Chief Mechanical engineer
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Out now: DVD version of leaves on the line
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October 13, 2004
New link
- Transport Watch UK. Lots of facts, lot of comparisons. Doesn't look good for rail
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October 11, 2004
Take the car and save the planet
- walking kills, apparently
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Hybrids better than the real thing
- golly
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Don't invest in mega-projects
- says Peter Gordon
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October 05, 2004
Prescott backs plan to reopen branch rail lines
- well, he says he does
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October 04, 2004
New Glossary Entry
- the Advanced Passenger Train
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October 03, 2004
People are building their own speed cameras
- One fellow is even
selling fully functioning ones
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Pendolinos and Voyagers may prove to be one of privatisation's disasters
- says Christian Wolmar
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Omedetō gozaimasu!
- Tech Central Station on the 40th anniversary of the Shinkansen
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October 02, 2004
Compulsory purchase to go
- in US? Johnathan Pearce has some musings
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October 01, 2004
Indian railway runs out of wheels
- because it refuses to import
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All for sprawl
- Tyler Cowen links to a couple of articles including one from the NY Times magazine which is attracting a lot of attention
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Underground maps as art
- according to Brian
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September 30, 2004
Recent comment
- Uncle Roger on the difficulty in working out accurate subsidy figures
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Europe by train
- Tim Hall on Stephen Karlson's adventures
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Carpool lanes = communist gulags
- Tim Hall is beginning to get it, possibly
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September 29, 2004
P&O axes 1,200 jobs as ferry travel sails into past
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September 27, 2004
Hurtling towards a £7.6bn bill at full tilt
- Alistair Osborne on the WCRM fiasco. Actually, I thought £7.6bn was on the low side
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September 26, 2004
A double-decked shame
- RJ3 laments the passing of the Routemaster. It's
those EU bastards, I tell you
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Tilting trains are rubbish
- according to Ross Clark. Now he tells us
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Delays plummet by 28%
- says Network Rail
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September 25, 2004
New glossary item
- the Health and Safety Executive - in which I demonstrate my almost complete ignorance of this institution
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Scant improvement in train times
- according to latest figures
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September 22, 2004
EU plan will hit safe women drivers
- and it's all in the name of sex equality
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Unions gang up to demand railway renationalisation
- they mean it isn't already?
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September 21, 2004
Top car makers support road-jam charging
- Ford, GM, Honda, Daimler
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Journey times cut as 125mph tilting train sets record
- after £8bn and the odd bankruptcy tilting trains that actually tilt are finally here
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September 18, 2004
ABD calls for environmental audit of public transport
- all those particulates
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Camera Partnerships must come clean on real causes of accidents
- says ABD
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September 16, 2004
The Green Quadratic
- ASI paper on planning from 1988. Now available on-line
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September 14, 2004
Up with conductors
- they're really good, you know
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Speeding Britons fined in car race to Spain
- "Among the cars were Ferraris, Porsches and Rolls-Royces."
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MPs to lose free airport parking
- oh, how my heart bleeds
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The case against driving licences
- Paul Clark in Lew Rockwell
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September 10, 2004
Drivers trade privacy for insurance discounts
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September 08, 2004
Free mints infuriate delayed commuters
- some even threw them away, ingrates
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Privatize the roads! Liberate the streets! All we have to lose are our parking tickets!
- Anthony Gregory in Lew Rockwell
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M6 Toll hits 10m journey mark
- er, about a month ago
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September 07, 2004
California high-speed rail plan
- all sorts of claims being made but Peter Gordon doesn't like the
precedents
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September 06, 2004
Swedish farmer fined 1,211 kronor for illegally parking a snowmobile in Warwick
- Krister Nylander lives 205 north of Stockholm and has never been to Warwick. "They can wait till Hell freezes over and I can get to Britain on my snowmobile to pay the fine.”
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September 05, 2004
"Obsession is not too strong a word to describe how railway enthusiasts feel about railways"
- Matthew Parris goes to Peru and meets some trainspotters
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September 03, 2004
Hidden costs do not justify the level of tax on petrol in Britain
- says Graham Seargeant
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Shovelling cash
- utilities to pay for digging up roads
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Alistair Morton, builder of the Channel Tunnel, is dead
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Government 'willed' Railtrack to fail
- says Corbett
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Cyclists saddled with seafront speed trap
- in Bournemouth
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Historic Amsterdam tram photos
Aaaah. Where's amg going to pitch up next?
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Why so little US electrification?
- Tim Hall ponders the answer
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September 02, 2004
London Underground Map
- as it really is.
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Electric v steam
- in 1923. But who won
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Freight or passenger in the US?
- they're in conflict. Stephen Karlson considers the options
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September 01, 2004
Fares and charge up in London
- says Livingstone
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'Fair fines' planned for speeding drivers
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Railtrack is cleared over Hatfield crash
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August 31, 2004
Thousands 'ready to quit Aslef'
- where would we be without brotherly love
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August 30, 2004
Rural watchdog attacks road sign blight
- See it's not just me who can't abide the
avalanche of street furniture.
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What the traffic will bear
- Bob Poole discusses the merits of tolling
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Prague trams
- photos. Aaah
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August 24, 2004
What if you can't drive?
- Catallarchy's Sean Lynch considers the options
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97% of accidents within speed limit
- according to the ABD
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August 22, 2004
Prosecute motorway lane hogs
- says RAC
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August 20, 2004
Radio tags for congestion charge?
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World's longest road opens
- in Russia
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Sprawl is cheap
- says Iain Murray
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August 19, 2004
Strike threat to BA and Eurostar
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Toll roads are safer
- at least according to my reading of this Marginal Revolution post
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Peking metro to hit 1000km mark
- I'm not sure even London's is that long
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August 15, 2004
Squander Two calmly talks about speed cameras
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Parking anarchy in St Albans
- Police withdraw traffic wardens, Herts council won't have any until October, it's bedlam!
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The future of transport
- as seen from the past
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Trains less efficient than cars
- yes, I know, it's old news
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Ferry solution, please
- Eamonn Butler wonders how you could introduce competition to a subsidised ferry service in the Western Isles
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link
August 14, 2004
Drink less, speed less, save on insurance
- Marginal Revolution has the story
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link
GNER's livery, despite being a corporate scheme that wasn't originally designed for trains, works very well, and has a lot more class than the many of the psychadelic liveries dreamed up by spotty design consultants. Even the disability legislation hasn't ruined it!
Posted by Tim Hall on September 21, 2004