The ''Highland Chieftain'' is a named British passenger train operated by

London North Eastern Railway London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four ...

. It operates daily in each direction between

London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...

and

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

via the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

and

Highland Main Line The Highland Main Line is a railway line in Scotland. It is long and runs through the Scottish Highlands linking a series of small towns and villages with Perth at one end and Inverness at the other. Today, services between Inverness and Edi ...

. It is one of the longest train journeys in the United Kingdom at 581 miles with a journey time of eight hours.

History

Historically, the principal train service between

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

was ''The Clansman'', which ran via the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The ''Highland Chieftain'' was introduced with the May 1984 timetable on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

and was intended to replace ''The Clansman''; the running time then was 8 hours 40 minutes southbound and 8 hours 50 minutes northbound. Today, it has a journey time of eight hours. Originally operated by

InterCity 125 The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125New trai ...

sets, the service has been operated by Class 800 ''Azumas'' since December 2019. Electric locomotive 87023, which operated on the

, was named ''Highland Chieftain'' between 1978 and 1984, but never had an association with the passenger service. LNER High Speed Train power car 43308, which has operated the service, was later named ''Highland Chieftain''. The nameplate was auctioned by

in 2020.

References

External links

National Rail Enquiries website
- main web portal for UK train fares, times and other travel information *{{cite news, title=Highland Chieftain train service saved, url=http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Highland-Chieftain-train-service-saved-27032012.htm, newspaper=Inverness Courier, date=27 March 2012, author=Sweeney, Val , accessdate=12 July 2013 Named passenger trains of British Rail East Coast Main Line Railway services introduced in 1984 1984 establishments in the United Kingdom