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- New York Deli sandwich
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- Tyne bridges
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- Berwick upon Tweed
For various reasons I’ve always wanted to do a train ride to the north of Scotland. Specifically, ever since I first heard of it I’ve wanted to travel on the Highland Chieftain. This train follows one of the longest routes in the UK – London Kings Cross to Inverness, taking around 8 hours. Between London and Edinburgh it’s timed pretty quickly, but north of Edinburgh it turns into more of a local train and stops at lots of places. It takes more than three hours for the stretch from Edinburgh to Inverness, in fact.
There’s a bit of history to this service. In the bad/good old days of Sectorisation, InterCity ran all of the Inter City trains in Scotland. Trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow weren’t regarded as InterCity trains, nor were any trains originating in Scotland that went purely to other Scottish cities, e.g. Glasgow to Aberdeen; they were all run by the ScotRail sector. Chris Green, then head of ScotRail, eventually got agreement that ScotRail would take over one InterCity journey each way per day – the single train (each way) that was timetabled between Kings Cross and Inverness. So a couple of HST sets (this was still in the days before electrification to the ECML) were re-liveried in ScotRail livery and dedicated to this service – one journey each day – and the service was named “The Highland Chieftain”. Apparently the HST depot at Polmadie kept them especially sick & span, and they were as far as possible staffed with Scots. These staff were very aware that this was ScotRail’s showcase service, so apparently service and catering standards were very high. Thanks to the quick timing between London and Edinburgh, the standard of service, and the extension into the Highlands, the Highland Chieftain came to be regarded as at least the equal of the Flying Scotsman as a way of travelling by train between London and Scotland.
Fast forward 25 years or more and the service is now run by Virgin East Coast trains. It’s still an HST – as a through service to Inverness it goes beyond the reach of the wires. It’s still called The Highland Chieftain, and I also got the feeling that some of the old ethos still hangs on, at least in First Class. Yes, First Class; thanks to advance booking and a senior railcard, the cost of a first class single ticket from York to Inverness wasn’t too outrageous.
I have to say, it’s a very civilised way to travel. It’s certainly more comfortable; three seats across the carriage makes lot of difference, and there’s extra fore-and-aft space as well. And of course there are all the First Class extras. During the six hours I was on the train I had the following, gratis:
- a ‘New York Deli’ beef & mustard sandwich with crisps and a slice of cake;
- a Goat’s Cheese and Caramelised Onion tart with a side salad, and another slice of cake;
- a packet of crisps, to keep me going;
- three cups of tea at various points along the journey;
- three small bottles of sparkling mineral water;
- a large – easily 250ml – glass of perfectly palatable red wine; and
- a miniature of Famous Grouse.
There was a very happy atmosphere in my part of the train during the last couple of hours of the journey, and of course the highland scenery just added to it. All in all I didn’t need anything to eat after arriving at Inverness at just after 8pm.
And then there was Inverness. I’d never been there before and didn’t really know anything about it; it was simply the destination for this train ride. What would I think of it?
(All pictures were taken with my iPhone from my seat on the train.)