Grand Central Railway

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The Grand Central Railway Company Ltd (Grand Central) is an "open-access" railway company that plans to run trains from Sunderland and Hartlepool to London from 2007. Rather than operating under a franchise (from the Department for Transport) like most other National Rail train operators in Britain, Grand Central will be run on a fully commercial, unsubsidized basis similar to that of Hull Trains. The company was formed in the mid-1990s and originally planned to operate high-speed train services between Newcastle and Manchester across the Calder Valley. This proposal was rejected by the Rail Regulator in 2004.

On 23 March 2006, Grand Central received approval (from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)) for a contract with Network Rail, lasting a minimum of five years, allowing it to operate three passenger services per day in each direction between London and Sunderland, expected to start no later than December 2006. However problems in obtained suitable rolling stock have led to the date for the start of service being put back to May 2007. <ref> IC Newcastle Story on Delay to Grand Central Services, IC Newcastle". </ref>

The East Coast Main Line is one of the busiest lines on the rail network and there is currently insufficient capacity on parts of the line to satisfy all the requirements of both passenger and freight operators. The principal long-distance passenger train operator on the east coast is Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), which in March 2005 signed a ten-year franchise with the Department for Transport, committing to pay annual premiums to the government totally £1.9 billion over the life of the contract. Many observers at the time believed that to be too expensive, and GNER has since encountered financial difficulties in making the payments.

As a result of capacity uncertainties, Grand Central was not given regulatory approval to run the originally proposed service to Bradford. They had proposed splitting and joining the Sunderland and Bradford trains at Doncaster, with a single service to and from London Kings Cross but the plan was rejected following concerns expressed by Network Rail.

Grand Central have promised to give an immediate 50% refund to any passenger unable to find a seat at any time during the journey.

GNER has vigorously opposed the prospect of on-rail competition on the east coast main line from Grand Central. The regulatory hearing at ORR saw strong objections to Grand Central's services from GNER, but these were rejected. GNER then challenged the legality of ORR's decisions by bringing a judicial review of ORR's decision in the High Court. On 27 July 2006, GNER's case failed and the High Court ruled that the ORR's decision to allow Grand Central access to the national railway network - paying access charges which are structurally different from (and lower than) those payable by franchised passeger train operators - was legal.<ref>"Guardian article on High Court judgement", Guardian Unlimited.</ref>

The Grand Central service will link parts of the North East that have not had a direct service to London for many years.

[edit] Rolling Stock

Image:Grand Central Train.PNG Grand Central originally planned to use a fleet of five of Bombardier Transportation’s five-carriage Class 222 diesel-electric multiple-unit 125-mph (200-km/h) trains, similar to those already in use by Hull Trains and Midland Mainline, and related to the Class 220/221 units used by Virgin Trains. However, difficulties in securing leases on these units led to them being leased elsewhere. On October 5 2006, it was announced that Grand Central had secured the use of six Class 43 power cars and 24 Mark 3 coaches to form three complete train sets. However the power cars will need a complete rewiring in order to work with the coaches as they are former loco-hauled stock with different electrical requirements<ref> The Railway Centre.</ref> This has led to the company's start date being pushed back to 20 May 2007 [1].

[edit] Planned Route

Grand Central intend to operate services from London Kings Cross to Sunderland.

[edit] Proposed Future services

In addition to its services to Sunderland, Grand Central also has plans for a number of other routes:

[edit] London-Bradford

As part of its original proposal, Grand Central also sought to run services between Kings Cross and Bradford. The company has maintained this ambition, with a proposal to run 4 services per day each way.

[edit] Grand Union

Under the name Grand Union, Grand Central has developed a case for running services over two additional routes:

[edit] Doncaster-Bradford

Grand Union has ambitions to run a semi-fast service between Doncaster and Bradford, following the same route as the proposed London-Bradford Grand Central service.

[edit] London-Huddersfield/Bradford

Grand Union has also developed a case for running services up the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Huddersfield and Bradford, as a means of connecting the Calderdale and Kirklees areas with direct services to London.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Grand Central Trains web site
• Map showing the Sunderland service along with GNER, Hull Trains, and the rejected Bradford route
• BBC News article on the topic

Categories: Future public transportation | Post-privatisation British railway companies | Open-access train operating companies