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nections with main line trains to and from London, and to and from the GER Norwich, Yar¬mouth and Lowestoft services. .
From 1900 to 1914 the GER ran through ser¬vices from Peterborough to Yarmouth. At one time through carriages for Doncaster were attached to the Yarmouth-Peter borough service at March from Liverpool Street. One famous service to use the GER route was the 'North Country Con¬tinental', a GER venture of 1885.The original route was via Doncaster and the GNR/GER joint line to and from York. From 1892 the portion of the Harwich Boat Train which connected with the 'North Country Continental' at March consisted of through carriages which ran to and from Birming¬ham via Rugby and Peterborough. In 1910 the up Harwich express left Peterborough (GER) at 11.15am and ran non stop to Rugby arriving at 11.21. The train continued to Birmingham arriv¬ing at 12.11. The down service left Birmingham New Street at 4pm and ran via Rugby (depart 5.10) to Peterborough arriving at 6.30. This train was then the only regular express service on the Peterborough-Rugby line.
During the 1920s and 1930s the two through carriages were usually attached to a non-corridor set at Rugby which formed the ordinary service train to Peterborough. For a time during the mid 1920s and during the 1930s, while the Eastbound train continued to run via Wansford, the Westbound service was re-routed via Stamford and Seaton Junction. This service was the only train of the day that ran from Peterborough East to Spital Bridge so avoiding the Peterborough North Platform roads and the GNR main line.
Since the 1930s the boat train has been re¬routed several times. Prior to 1973 the service, which ran between Manchester Piccadilly and Harwich, was routed via Sheffield, Retford, Gainsborough, Lincoln, Sleaford, Spalding and March. As the joint line stations did not contribute much traffic, from 7 May 1973 the train was redirected to run via major towns and cities. The route was Manchester Piccadilly, Sheffield Midland, Nottingham, Grantham and Peter¬borough.
In November 1982 plans were announced to extend the service to and from Scotland and the northwest. Trains to and from Glasgow would run via Carlisle, Preston and Manchester Victoria. It would then be possible to travel between Amsterdam and Glasgow in just under 20hrs. 'The European' was introduced with the new timetable in May 1983.
From Peterborough up to the approach to London the line was fast and straight with a ruling gradient, except near London, of 1 in 200. This, therefore, encouraged fast running. In the 1850s the best timings to Peterborough fell steadily from 150 to 100min. For a few months in 1864 the lOam 'Scotsman' covered the 76.4 miles in 95min. By 1867 regular expresses made the journey in 97min. Due to competition with shorter rival routes, the fastest trains were the Manchester expresses which in 1857 took about 95min, but only 86min by 1895. In 1888 came the races to the north with the consequent lightening of loads and acceleration of timings. However, probably the fastest recognised journey time before 1900 was achieved in the races to Aberdeen. On 21 August 1895 No 668, with 101 ton behind it, reached Peterborough only 72min after leaving King's Cross.
In the 1890s Peterborough was fortunate in having an excellent express service to and from London. Of the 24 expresses that daily ran non stop some covered the distance between 85 and 94min. The best train to King's Cross was the 7.54pm ex-Manchester, which took 81min. The famous 'Mark Lane' express, which in 1895 left Peterborough at 9.12am, took 88min to reach London. A popular return service was the 5.50pm, which in earlier years had departed King's Cross at 5.45 and before that at 5.30.'