The Great Northern route, formerly known as Great Northern Electrics, is the name given to suburban rail services run on the southern end of Britain's East Coast Main Line and its associated branches. Services operate to or from London King's Cross and London Moorgate. Destinations include Hertford North, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, and Cambridge, and in peak hours, additional services run to Peterborough and King's Lynn. Services run through parts of Greater London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk.
A Class 717 standing at Bowes Park in 2019
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The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile long (632 km) electrified railway between its southern terminus at London King's Cross station and Edinburgh Waverley via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road. The main line acts as a 'spine' for several diverging branches, serving destinations such as Cambridge, Leeds, Hull, Sunderland and Lincoln, all with direct services to London. In addition, a few ECML services extend beyond Edinburgh to serve Glasgow Central, although the principal London-Glasgow route is the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
LNER Azuma at Burnmouth
A GNR Stirling Single express locomotive of the late 19th century
LNER Class A3 No. 2547 Doncaster hauls the daily Flying Scotsman in 1928.
Class 55 "Deltic" locomotive at Edinburgh in 1980. These were the main express locomotives on the ECML in the 1960s and 1970s.
