Ten years after Grand Central ran its first service from Sunderland to Kings Cross on 18th December 2007, the final HST journey ran on New Years Eve. Pictured is 1A61, the 1212 Sunderland to Kings Cross arriving at Hartlepool on the last southbound HST service. This would return as the last train 0f 2017 back to the North East the 1647 from Kings Cross (1N94).
Their lease to Grand Central having expired these three HSTs are moving to East Midland Trains. We will miss these 40 year old iconic trains (and especially Coach A) which are being replaced by more 180’s from First Great Western to standardise the fleet.