The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile (632 km) long electrified high-speed railway link between London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The route forms a key artery on the eastern side of Great Britain and is broadly paralleled by the A1 trunk road. It links London, the South East and East Anglia with Yorkshire, the North East Regions and Scotland. It also carries key commuter flows for the north side of London. It is therefore important to the economic health of a number of areas of the country. It also handles cross-country, commuter and local passenger services, and carries heavy tonnages of freight traffic. The route has ELRs ECM1 - ECM9.

Route definition and description

The Network Rail definition of the ECML includes five separate lines:

• The main line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley stations, via Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar;
• The Doncaster branch of the Wakefield Line, between Doncaster to Leeds;
• The North Berwick branch from Drem to North Berwick
• The Northern City Line from Finsbury Park to Moorgate
• The Hertford Loop from Alexandra Palace to Stevenage

In addition to the formal Network Rail definition, the ECML is sometimes regarded as extending beyond Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen, running mostly right on the east coast via Kirkcaldy, Dundee and Arbroath. North of Edinburgh it includes the world-famous red cantilever Forth Bridge, and at Dundee the curved Tay Bridge, both crossing wide river estuaries.

The Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central via Carstairs and Motherwell line is officially part of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) route, but is often considered part of the ECML because several East Coast services from King's Cross to Glasgow Central use this section on a daily basis

History

The line was built by three railway companies, each serving their own area but with the intention of linking up to form the through route that became the East Coast Main Line. From north to south they were

• the North British Railway, from Edinburgh to Berwick-on-Tweed, completed in 1846,
• the North Eastern Railway from Berwick-on-Tweed to Shaftholme; the North Eastern Railway was substantially complete in 1871 when the company combined parts of several local railways and built a section to form a direct through route, and
• the Great Northern Railway from Shaftholme to Kings Cross, completed in 1850.

The boundary between the NER and the GNR was an end-on junction, famously described as in "a ploughed field" at Shaftholme, some way north of Doncaster.

Realising that through journeys were an important part of their business, the companies established special rolling stock in 1860 on a collaborative basis; it was called the "East Coast Joint Stock".

In 1923 the three companies were grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).

Numerous alterations to short sections of the original route have taken place, the most notable being the opening of the King Edward VII Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1906 and the Selby diversion, built to by-pass anticipated mining subsidence from the Selby coalfield and a bottleneck at Selby station. The Selby diversion was opened in 1983 and diverged from the original ECML at Temple Hirst, north of Doncaster, and joined the Leeds to York line at Colton Junction.

The ECML has been the backdrop for a number of famous rail journeys and locomotives. The line was worked for many years by Pacific locomotives designed by Gresley, including the famous steam locomotives "Flying Scotsman" and "Mallard". Mallard achieved a world record speed for a steam locomotive, at and this record was never beaten. It made the run on the Grantham-to-Peterborough section, on the descent of Stoke Bank.

Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel traction in the early 1960s, when the purpose-built Deltic locomotive was developed by English Electric. The prototype was successful and a fleet of 22 locomotives was built, to handle all the important express traffic. They were powered by engines originally developed for fast torpedo boat purposes, and the configuration of the engines led to the Deltic name. Their characteristic throaty exhaust roar and chubby body outline made them unmistakable in service. The class remains the most powerful diesel locomotive in service in Britain, at .

It was just after the Deltics were introduced that the first sections of the East Coast Main Line were upgraded to officially allow running. The first length to be cleared for the new higher speed was a stretch between Peterborough and Grantham on the 15 June 1965, the second was between Grantham and Newark.

As the demand for higher speed intensified, they were eventually superseded by the High Speed Train (HST), introduced between 1976 and 1981.

A prototype of the HST, the British Rail Class 43 achieved on the line in 1973 before current UK legislation requires in-cab signalling for speeds of over 125 mph which prevents the InterCity 225 train-sets from operating at the Class 91 design speed of in normal service. Before the present in-cab regulations came in, British Rail experimented with 140 mph running by introducing a fifth, flashing green signalling aspect on track between New England North and Stoke Tunnel. The fifth aspect is not observable in normal service and appears when the next signal is a flashing green aspect and the signal section is clear which ensures that there is sufficient braking distance to bring a train to a stand from 140 mph. Locomotives have operated on the ECML at speeds of up to in test runs.

The ECML was electrified in the late 1980s using state money. The electrification work began in 1985 and the initial section between King's Cross and Leeds went into operational trials in 1988. The full electrification was completed in late 1990, and the current InterCity 225 rolling stock was introduced.

Infrastructure

The line is mainly four tracks from London to the tunnel just south of Grantham except for two twin-track sections; the first of these is near Welwyn North Station as it crosses the Digswell Viaduct and passes through two tunnels, the second is between Huntingdon and Peterborough near 'Stilton Fen'. North of Grantham the route is twin track except for a four-track sections around Doncaster (between Colton Junction which is south of York and Northallerton) and another at Newcastle.

The main route is electrified along the full route and only the Leeds and Wakefield branch between Leeds and York (Neville Hill Depot to Colton Junction) is non-electrified.

With most the of the line rated for operation, the ECML was the fastest main line in the UK until the opening of High Speed One. These relatively high speeds are possible because much of the ECML travels on fairly straight track on the flatter, eastern regions of England, through Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, though there are significant speed restrictions (due to curvature) particularly North of Darlington and between Doncaster and Leeds. By contrast, the West Coast Main Line has to traverse the Trent Valley and the mountains of Cumbria, leading to many more curves and a lower general speed limit of . Speeds on the WCML have been increased in recent years with the introduction of tilting Pendolino trains and now match the 125 mph speeds available on the ECML.

Rolling stock

Most passenger services use the InterCity 225 rolling stock. Some diesels still operate on line, including:

• CrossCountry's Voyagers and Super Voyagers (operating CrossCountry routes)
• First Hull Trains Adelantes (Kings Cross - Hull)
• East Coast Main Line CompanyHST sets work some services to Edinburgh, and services north of Edinburgh towards Inverness and Aberdeen, as well as daily services to Hull and Skipton.
• East Midlands Trains operate a limited service of HSTs over a portion of the route between Doncaster and Leeds and run a Summer Saturday service with Meridians from Doncaster and Scarborough to London St Pancras, and back.
• Grand Central's HSTs (Kings Cross - Sunderland)

Operators

The line's current principal operator, East Coast is formally known as East Coast Mainline Company Ltd, whose services include regular trains from King's Cross to Leeds and Edinburgh.. 'East Coast' is the trading name of this wholly-owned subsidiary of a new UK government-owned company called Directly Operated Railways Ltd. East Coast replaced National Express East Coast Ltd on 14 November 2009. Other operators of passenger trains on the line are:

• First Capital Connect: commuter services between King's Cross, Peterborough, Cambridge and King's Lynn and between Moorgate and Stevenage via either Welwyn Garden City or the Hertford Loop.
• First Hull Trains: between Kings Cross and Hull.
• East Midlands Trains
  • East Midlands Local: between Grantham and Peterborough, part of the service that runs between Liverpool Lime Street and Norwich.
  • East Midlands London services: between Doncaster and York/Scarborough extensions of services running to/from Sheffield, Leicester and London St Pancras.
• CrossCountry: cross-country services north of Sheffield are routed via either Leeds or Doncaster. Leeds trains use the ECML between Wakefield Westgate and Leeds and then again north of York. Doncaster trains use the ECML north of Doncaster. Services run to and beyond Edinburgh. Occasional services run from Doncaster to Leeds before rejoining the ECML at York.
• First TransPennine Express: between York and Newcastle and between York and Northallerton before they divert off the ECML to Middlesbrough via Yarm.
• Northern Rail: suburban services from Doncaster to Leeds and Chathill to Newcastle via Morpeth railway station and infrequent services between Newcastle and Darlington that continue to Middlesbrough and Saltburn. Services between Selby and York also use the line from Hambleton Junction to York.
• First ScotRail: services between Edinburgh and North Berwick. The overnight Caledonian Sleeper occasionally uses the ECML when engineering works prevent it from using its normal train path on the WCML.
• Grand Central: intercity from Kings Cross to Sunderland, branching off the main line at Northallerton

Eurostar previously held the rights to run five trains a day on the line for services from continental Europe to cities north of London, as part of the Regional Eurostar plan, although such services have never been run.

English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd , FirstGBRf, Freightliner Ltd, Freightliner Heavy Haul Ltd and Direct Rail Services Ltd operate freight services.

Development

Capacity problems

The ECML is one of the busiest lines on the British rail network and there is currently insufficient capacity on parts of the line to satisfy all the requirements of both passenger and freight operators.

There are bottleneck at the following locations:

• The section of twin track at Welwyn North (using the Digswell Viaduct and the Welwyn tunnels) creates
• At Hitchin where many trains from London using the Hitchin-Cambridge Line must cross three other tracks at grade using a flat junction.
• Just north of Newark station at a flat crossing with the Nottingham-Lincoln line.
• Doncaster station has limited facilities for terminating branch trains on the up side of the station.
• South of Newcastle, leading to proposals to reopen the Leamside line to passenger and freight traffic.
• Between Ickleford and Letchworth where until the mid 1990s the Icknield Way crossed the line on a flat crossing with no barriers or gates. Since then the flat crossing has been replaced by a bridge.

Rail services are vulnerable during high winds and there have been several de-wirements over the years due to the unusually wide spacing between the supporting masts of the overhead lines). This wide spacing was a result of extreme pressure from the Department for Transport (as proxy for the taxpayer) to reduce avoidable costs when the line was originally electrified between 1985 and 1990.

Recent developments

The Allington Chord was constructed near Grantham in 2006, allowing services between Nottingham and Skegness to pass under the line, rather than crossing it at a flat junction. This provided sufficient extra capacity for National Express East Coast to run 12 additional services between Leeds and London each day.

Proposed developments

Over the years successive infrastructure managers have developed schemes for route improvements.

These include the following:

• Quadrupling the Welwyn North section, involving probable double-decking of the viaduct and duplication of the two tunnels

• Full reversible signalling over the Stilton Fen section
• Power supply upgrades along the route, including some OLE support improvements
• Power supply enhancement on the diversionary Hertford Loop route
• Provision of an extra platform at Kings Cross (the so-called "platform Y")
• Provision of a grade-separated junction at Hitchin North enabling down Cambridge trains to cross the main line
• Provision of a new Up Bay platform at Doncaster
• Enhanced passenger access to the platforms at Peterborough and Stevenage
• Increasing maximum speeds on the fast lines to between 125 mph and 140 mph in conjunction with the introduction of the Intercity Express Programme
• Replacement of the Newark Flat Crossing with a flyover
• Major remodelling of Peterborough Station
• Reopening of freight diversionary routes

Accidents

The ECML has been witness to a number of incidents resulting in death and serious injury:

• Abbots Ripton, 21 January 1876 - 14 people died when the Flying Scotsman crashed during a blizzard.
• Grantham, 19 August 1906 - 14 people died, unidentified cause.
• Welwyn Garden City, 15 June 1935 - 13 people died and 81 injured when 2 trains collided due to a signaller's error
• Doncaster, 16 March 1951 - 14 killed and 12 seriously injured when a train derailed south the station and struck a bridge pier
• Connington South, 5 March 1967 - 5 people died and 18 were injured when an express train was derailed.
• 4 serious crashes at Morpeth on 7 May 1969, 24 June 1984, 13 November 1992 and 27 June 1994
• Penmanshiel Tunnel collapse on 17 March 1979
• Newcastle Central Station, 30 November 1989 - 15 people were injured when two InterCity expresses collided
• Hatfield rail crash, 17 October 2000 - 4 people killed, 15 injured when an InterCity 225 derailed. The accident's aftermath had grave consequences for the privatised infrastructure company, Railtrack.
• Selby rail crash, 28 February 2001 - 10 people killed, 82 injured when a Land Rover Defender swerved down an embankment off the M62 motorway into the path of a southbound GNER Intercity 225.
• Potters Bar rail crash, 10 May 2002 - 7 people killed, 81 injured caused by loose points on the line.
• Copmanthorpe rail crash, 25 September 2006

Popular culture

The cuttings and tunnel entrances just north of King's Cross make a memorable smoky appearance in the 1955 Ealing comedy film The Ladykillers. Also during the 1950s, the line featured in the 1954 documentary short Elizabethan Express. Later, the 1971 British gangster film Get Carter features a journey from London Kings Cross to Newcastle in the opening credits.

References

1. East Coast Main Line Rail Route Upgrading, United Kingdom
2. Friends of the Earth proposal
3. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/rus%20documents/route%20utilisation%20strategies/east%20midlands/east%20midlands%20rus%20draft%20for%20consultation.pdf|title=East Midlands Route Utilisation Strategy Draft for Consultation|year=2009|publisher=Network Rail| format =PDF}}