Words: Mark Richards; Photos: Mark Richards & Dave Bosher

At 0201 on Sunday 11 November 2007, just over ten years since its start, the Silverlink Trains franchise came to an end. Its network of services along the West Coast Main Line and the branches from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey and Bletchley to Bedford passed to London Midland, while the routes around London became part of London Overground. We take a look back at Silverlink’s ten year history and recall some of the highs and lows of the franchise.

 
A brief history of Silverlink

The Silverlink franchise (part of the National Express Group) commenced on 2 March 1997, although the name ‘Silverlink’ did not appear until September 1997. During these first few months it was known as North London Railways before 313134 became the first unit to launch the new brand and livery at the end of September 1997.

The choice of name Silverlink appears an odd one, not closely associated with any aspect of the route over which its trains operated. Indeed, the name is more fondly remembered as that of a LNER A4 ‘Pacific’ on the East Coast Main Line! However, it could have been worse; at least we were spared the uninspiring ‘Silverwing’ which apparently was to be the original name of the company, although a silver wing logo did form part of the adopted livery.

During its ten years operating the franchise, Silverlink County introduced a number of improvements on its core corridor from Northampton to London Euston increasing the frequency of services and carrying out modernisation and improvement to stations along the route. Service enhancements were also provided on the Watford DC line and on the North London line. At the end of its franchise, Silverlink was ranked as the fifth most punctual of Britain’s twenty-two Train Operating Companies with 90.8% of its trains running on time.

Despite its success, perhaps the abiding memory for many of its customers will be the seemingly interminable blockades of the West Coast Main Line (WCML), which led to extensive periods of bus substitution. The weekend service, particularly on Sunday, still needs much improvement to recover to what it was before the start of the works. The final few weeks of Silverlink were blighted by a series of strikes by the ASLEF train drivers union, which saw a severely limited service in operation on successive Fridays from the end of October 2007, with County services reduced to a Tring to Euston shuttle.

The Fleet

During the term of its franchise, the only new trains introduced have been the thirty Class 350 Desiro’s shared with Central Trains and based at the new King’s Heath facility in Northampton. The mainstay of the County fleet (Northampton to Euston services) has been the 4-car 321/4s, which have consistently shown themselves to be the most reliable electric units in the country. On the various branches, Silverlink inherited a motley fleet of units including Classes 117 and 121. These proved to be extremely unreliable and on the Bedford-Bletchley there was regular substitution by buses and taxis. As a short term measure Silverlink used top and tail Class 31s until more suitable rolling stock could be acquired, which arrived in the form of two-car Class 150 units in 2000.

For the London lines including the Watford DC Lines, Silverlink had a fleet of twenty-three Class 313 dual-voltage units, later to be complemented by three DC-only Class 508 units. Silverlink also operated a Class 08 shunter, 08874 Catherine, based at the Bletchley depot.

Routes and services

The Silverlink network was divided into two sub-brands. Silverlink County provided services from Birmingham to London Euston via Coventry, Rugby, Northampton, Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction, including the Bedford to Bletchley and Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branches. Silverlink Metro was the brand used for suburban services on the Watford DC lines, Richmond to North Woolwich (North London Line, Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction (West London Line) and the Gospel Oak to Barking line. 

From 2005, services north of Northampton were lost to Central Trains as part of the timetable alterations following the introduction of Virgin’s Pendolino services. Stratford to North Woolwich was axed from the North London Line in December 2006, this route now largely duplicated by the Docklands Light Railway.

The Swansong Railtour

On Saturday 3^rd November and Saturday 10^th November Pathfinder Tours in conjunction with Silverlink Trains operated the ‘Silverlink Swansong.’ These special tours operated over much of the Silverlink network, taking the WCML to Northampton and the branches to Bedford, Watford DC, North London, Gospel Oak and Barking and the West London line. Not only were these tours a great way to explore the network, they also visited many lines that do not normally see passenger services including four depots and the Bletchley Flyover.

The first tour on Saturday 3^rd November was top and tailed by EWS Class 37s – 37410 and 37417 Richard Trevithick. Starting from London Euston Platform 11, the varied itinerary saw visits to Willesden and Wembley depots in London and later to Bletchley (where the 08 depot shunter was called to assist) and King’s Heath. In addition to the depot visits, most of the Silverlink lines were traversed including the North London from Stratford to Willesden Junction, the West London via Kensington Olympia, the Watford DC line from Willesden Junction Low Level, the Bedford to Bletchley branch and the flyover at Bletchley to the extent of the line at Swanbourne Sidings (actually in Newton Longville) and of course the main route from London Euston to Northampton.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting day, the train keeping remarkably well to time throughout, although there were some rather prolonged pathing stops. Ample opportunity was made for photo opportunities en-route. Towards the end of the day, all the passengers were presented with a Silverlink ‘goody-bag’ to commemorate the end of the franchise.

Almost gone but not quite…

In the last couple of weeks of the Silverlink franchise noticeable efforts were made to remove the branding from stations and trains. Most of the 321/4s lost their Silverlink County names and logos in the week running up to November 11^th while stations had the ‘Silverlink Trains’ wording blanked out on station name boards and similarly blanked out on other posters and signs.

On Monday 12^th November, the second day of the London Midland franchise, there were at least two 321/4s with Silverlink County names and logos and it appears that someone had forgotten to change the name board at Bushey, which still claimed to be a Silverlink Trains station!

The 350s are the first units to receive the new London Midland livery although none were seen on the 12^th, despite details of the expected diagrams being posted on the London Midland web site. All other 321/4s were seen without any branding and a number still had Silverlink Trains branding on internal posters, notices and maps. Indeed, many stations still carry Silverlink branded timetables alongside posters welcoming customers to the new London Midland franchise.

Perhaps the best example of the muddle of operators was at Watford Junction where side-by-side could be seen a London Overground and a Silverlink Metro timetable both showing exactly the same service!

Special thanks to Dave Bosher

Sources:

Celebrating 10 years of Silverlink – Silverlink Trains (November 2007)

Supporting Rail in the Marston Vale 1980-2005 – Bedford to Bletchley Rail Users Association (2005)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverlink)

The Silverlink Swansong 1 Souvenir Brochure – Pathfinder Railtours (November 2007)

London Midland web site (www.londonmidland.com)