ABSTRACT
I N following up the part played by the Great Northern Companyin the development of traffic between England and Scotland, it is important to distinguish between the East Coast route and the East Coast joint service. The title " East Coast Route," though now often applied to the whole line of railway from King's Cross via York, Newcastle, and Berwick to Edinburgh, properly belongs only to the part of this line north of York; and that part, as we saw in an earlier section of this book, was carried through by Hudson and the Stephensons prior to the construction of the Great Northern between York and London, and without any regard for Great Northern interests. It was in the interest of the old route between York and London-the Midland route via Derby and Rugby-that the Railway King worked so hard to connect York with Edinburgh ; but, by the irony of fate, it was decreed that the Midland should enjoy the through traffic for a very few years only. Almost from its first opening into London, as we have seen, the Great Northern-Hudson's bête-noir-superseded the Midland as the channel for " East Coast " traffic to and from the Metropolis.
