It was running in addition to 2tph from Edinburgh to London in 2019. The London trains have more capacity and are better used. They serve "the north" pretty well too. I'm unsure what the third Newcastle to London service has to do with how frequent the TPE services between Edinburgh and Newcastle are.
Not withdrawn, but reorganised. They still need to have the units transferred between the Liverpool - Newcastle services and their facilities in Scotland for trains and crew.
As per the East Coast consultation the Edinburgh to Huddersfield (and Manchester Airport) was to be culled to operate south of York to Manchester Victoria only and be replaced with a Kings Cross to Newcastle.
The two aren't linked. There are still enough units to run an hourly Liverpool to Edinburgh service and a Manchester Airport to Newcastle service. The key reason not to do it now is because the additional LNER services would conflict with the second TPE service between York and Newcastle, but that's unconnected to whether there's a need for the service from Liverpool to extend to Edinburgh. The additional LNER services date from the VTEC franchise agreement and are a rather superior use of the slot.
The 1912 from Edinburgh might run through to York.
Pathing most likely. Starting at Newcastle gives the option to slot the train into the biggest gap between faster trains to serve these local stations, something that most likely would not be possible if the train was an extension of the Liverpool to Newcastle service.
There isn't a standard hourly path available, and neither is there the proven demand for an hourly service. Of course, if the 5 trains a day are a success, they may well be increased.
Various reasons including pathing, to enhance reliability (the ECML north of Newcastle is quite poor in terms of performance), as well as because these are effectively glorified ECS services, so the sets need come on and off Heaton depot.
Not every train will be able to call at Cramlington and Dunbar even with just five services. And this would also lead to the mothballing of Manors. The withdrawal of the Northern services to Morpeth would be quite sensible as leaving the 75 miles/hour dmu paths is rather daft, but this is certainly not a useful way to do it. 1tph Morpeth - Newcastle with all services calling at Cramlington, and Manors mothballed, might have worked, plus a handful of necessary positioning services to Edinburgh. But this is what they've gone for.
www.railadvent.co.uk
Two southbound trains are likely to call, early morning and early evening from Edinburgh. May as well? Given it permits a day trip from Cramlington to Edinburgh by direct services, and you can arrive in the city about 0900 or about 1100. It also offers an additional service to Newcastle leaving around 0700. What's not to like.
The stopper could always use platform 1 at Dunbar while the non stop service goes though platform 2 provided of course the paths all add up....
Would be a significant wait at Dunbar for the service being overtaken, although yes, possible.
At least one of the new Edinburgh-Newcastle services is overtaken at Dunbar. It's 'only' a 6.5 minute dwell IIRC.
There's 0604, arr Newcastle 0717; the 0727 arr Edinburgh 0707 and the (albeit not long before 0900 arrival) but also the 0811 arriving Edinburgh 0851?
It'd be a devil of a job to upgrade the Down Loop, because of the siding connections that would need to be reworked to protect any passenger train. Also the speed through the loop could cause some issues, as the alignment is restricted by the viaduct immediately south. Platform 3 looks feasible but you'd have to lose/move at least one of the sidings. Finally, does it actually help? How long would the stopper need to be held given the quite long headways on this section, and would trains naturally end up there at the right time?
I thought it was just the TPE arriving too late, rather than the ideal LNER too!
The decision on which exact stations to call at was primarily driven by expected passenger volumes, and which combination offered the greatest overall connectivity to the area. But I wouldn't necessarily assume that all of the surpressed calls end up being happening...
