Azumas Now Have A Virtuous Sister
As I arrived in Kings Cross tonight from Leeds, one of Hull Trains’s new Paragons was in the next platform to the LNER Azuma, that I arrived in.
The Azuma is a Class 800 train and the Paragon is a Class 802 train.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a strong commercial battle, between the two train companies on the route between London and Hull
- Both companies are running new, modern trains.
- At present LNER run just one train per day to and from Hull, with Hull trains running around half-a-dozen trains per day.
- Hull Trains are the only company that runs on Sunday to Hull.
- It should be noted that the Hitachi trains seem to be fairly agile and I wouldn’t be surprised that they could reach Scarborough via Beverley, Driffield and Bridlington.
I don’t think passengers to and from East Yorkshire will be losing out!
The Anonymous Widower 
Not sure why Hull Trains have leased the 802 with its more powerful engines, when the route LGX Hull is pretty flat.
Comment by R. Mark Clayton | December 31, 2019 |
You have First Great Western, First TransPennine, First East Coast and First Hull Trains who all will be running 802s. Perhaps if they find that 800s would be OK, they might swap some 802s with Great Western 800s. Recently, they’ve been running a Great Western HST on the route.
I also wonder if TransPennine and Hull Trains are doing servicing at the same place.
Incidentally, TransPennine 802s are not unknown in West London. Perhaps some servicing or crew training is being done by Great Western.
It does seem that First are acting like a Group.
They will certainly be a big operator of Hitachi trains with Avanti West Coast buying another twenty-three!
A quick search of Wikipedia shows that First Group have ordered 88 Hitachi trains, whereas LNER have ordered 65 and Abellio East Midlands Railway have ordered 33.
So it looks like they are the largest operator.
This month’s Modern Railways gives some significant details on Avanti West Coast’s new Hitachi trains. I shall be analysing it later.
What is said has implications for Hull Trains Class 802 trains.
Comment by AnonW | December 31, 2019 |