HSTs in the West Midlands and Worcestershire: 1999 to 2009

Pictorially charting the period during which the HST's popularity really began to soar...

Looking seriously smart fresh from refurbishment, re-engined Arriva CrossCountry power car 43304 takes us back to the initial excitement of the new HST livery that emerged in 2008.

The ten year period between 1999 and 2009 marked a major rise in the popularity of the HST. The groundbreakingly futuristic train had left wide-eyed young spotters mesmerised upon its introduction in the 1970s. But by the 1990s, standardised in InterCity Swallow livery, it had become an ever-present wallpaper behind the much more varied realm of locomotive passenger haulage.


Classic late '90s. The original Virgin CrossCountry livery. Red and charcoal, with a yellow cab roof for the power cars. This is 43068 at Kings Norton on 10th September 1999.

However, the privatisation of British Rail through the second half of the '90s brought the HST back into focus. 1998 and 1999 saw a huge raft of old BR locos taken out of service, and simultaneously, for the first time, newly ordered passenger stock tangibly threatened the HST's reign of supremacy on diesel routes. Meanwhile, a sequence of new liveries spread across the HST fleet, creating a lot more appeal for the photographers who fed the enthusiasts' magazines. The scene was set, and fairly quickly, enthusiasts began to remember the excitement they'd felt when the HST first entered their world.

Info-Pictorial: The Virgin Trains HSTs – 1997 to 2002

"The final coaching stock rake to wear InterCity livery was set XC63, which received its Virgin red repaint in November 2000."

43078 in a classic late '90s mixed livery scene.

There are probably not that many rationales that can justify living in Birmingham as a stroke of good fortune. But as the epicentre of Virgin CrossCountry, New Street station gave trainspotters optimum access to Britain’s largest realm of HST and loco-hauled passenger service between 1997 and 2002.

The CrossCountry HSTs

"...All but one had been Virgin CrossCountry power cars before the introduction of the Voyagers, and so were really just returning to old haunts."

In 2003, when Virgin Trains announced that their use of HSTs on CrossCountry had come to an end, it looked as though more than two decades of regular IC125 service over the network had passed into history for good.

Demand for the 1970s design icons did, however, persist, and for the next few years Virgin drafted in HSTs on short-term hire to extend capacity when required. But when Arriva won the new CrossCountry franchise in summer 2007, they pledged that the HST would return to daily operation on XC routes. A new era was about to begin for the vintage-yet-still-modern classic. MTU-engined Class 43s in the distinctive late noughties XC livery would become a familiar sight, and remain so for over a decade…