The East Coast Main Line

The East Coast Main Line links 54 stations, with a top line speed of 125 mph.

See the East Coast Main Line on the live map

The map draws the line on its own, names every station along it, and shows the trains running on it right now.

The line in numbers

No end-to-end length is given for this line because OpenStreetMap applies its name to several separate stretches of track, so any figure measured from the map data would be a fragment of the real route rather than the whole of it.

Stations on this line

• Edinburgh Waverley22.8 million a year
• Musselburgh461,092 a year
• Wallyford349,262 a year
• Prestonpans257,514 a year
• Longniddry205,200 a year
• Drem152,528 a year
• East Linton66,982 a year
• Dunbar416,356 a year
• Reston29,896 a year
• Berwick-upon-Tweed707,310 a year
• Chathill1,580 a year
• Alnmouth378,954 a year
• Acklington856 a year
• Widdrington2,652 a year
• Morpeth622,614 a year
• Pegswood1,468 a year
• Cramlington183,856 a year
• Newcastle10.5 million a year
• Manors63,914 a year
• Chester-le-Street232,324 a year
• Durham2.8 million a year
• Darlington2.8 million a year
• Northallerton797,766 a year
• Thirsk288,024 a year
• York10.5 million a year
• Doncaster4.5 million a year
• Retford602,590 a year
• Newark Northgate1.1 million a year
• Grantham1.5 million a year
• Peterborough5.3 million a year
• Huntingdon1.6 million a year
• St Neots1.1 million a year
• Sandy679,484 a year
• Biggleswade894,928 a year
• Arlesey688,476 a year
• Hitchin2.9 million a year
• Stevenage4.7 million a year
• Knebworth436,866 a year
• Welwyn North386,640 a year
• Welwyn Garden City2.5 million a year
• Hatfield2.5 million a year
• Welham Green253,196 a year
• Brookmans Park275,238 a year
• Potters Bar2.5 million a year
• Hadley Wood362,264 a year
• New Barnet1.3 million a year
• Oakleigh Park924,194 a year
• New Southgate920,392 a year
• Alexandra Palace1.9 million a year
• Hornsey1.7 million a year
• Harringay1.1 million a year
• Finsbury Park11.2 million a year
• London St. Pancras International38.8 million a year
• London King's Cross27.7 million a year

The busiest station on the line is London St. Pancras International, 38.8 million entries and exits a year and 11th busiest in Britain.

Freight on this line, hour by hour

Freight is booked over the East Coast Main Line on 3,646 paths in the week beginning 12 October 2026: 655 paths on the Wednesday, 395 paths on the Saturday and 66 paths on the Sunday. 479 of them run whatever the traffic; the rest are held in the timetable and used only when there is something to move. The busiest hour is 04:00 to 05:00 on the Tuesday, with 89 paths booked.

The grid counts the goods trains booked to pass in each hour of the week beginning 12 October 2026: the darker the hour, the more paths, and a dot marks an hour with at least one path that runs regardless. Engineering trains, empty stock and light engines are not counted. Across Britain only about a fifth of booked freight paths run on a given day, so a booked path is a possibility rather than a promise; the freight statistics page explains how that is measured.

Paths booked in the hournone12 to 34 to 78 to 1516 or moreone runs regardless

Lines it meets

Blyth and Tyne Line, East Coast (Northern) Line, Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line, Ely to Peterborough Line, Hertford Loop Line, Northern City Line, Sheffield to Lincoln Line, St Pancras to Chesterfield Line, Tees Valley Line, Thameslink, York to Scarborough Line.

Passenger figures are the Office of Rail and Road's estimates of station usage for 2024-25, added up across the stations on this line. They count entries and exits at those stations rather than journeys along the line, and a station served by more than one line is counted for each of them.

All railway lines · All stations

From the Train Map UK shop See everything

London Underground print £27.50Limited first edition £44.68Train Map UK mug £14.72