GRAND CENTRAL RAILWAY

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'Grand Central Railway Company Ltd' (Grand Central) is a 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 Britain’s principal National Rail train operators, Grand Central will be running under the ‘open access’ status (already used by Hull Trains) which opens the railway network to services run on a fully commercial, unsubsidised basis. 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. Problems in obtaining suitable rolling stock led to the date for the start of service being put back to May 2007.^[1] However, further delays in refurbishing rolling stock for the service has delayed the start further, with the service planned to begin in September 2007.^[2]
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 totalling £1.3 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. It 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 has 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 passenger train operators - was legal.^[3]
The Grand Central service will link parts of the North East that have not had a direct service to London for many years.

Contents

Rolling stock

Planned route

Proposed future services

London-Bradford

Grand Union

Other proposed routes

References

External links

Rolling stock

On October 5 2006, it was announced that Grand Central had secured the use of six Class 43 power cars, 6 HST Trailer vehicles (3 TRSB and 3 TGS) and 18 former loco hauled Mark 3 coaches to form three complete train sets. However the former loco hauled Mark 3 will need a complete rewiring in order to work with the Class 43 power cars as they have different electrical requirements.^[4] This caused the company's start date to be pushed back to 20 May 2007^[5] and then further to again to September 2007.
In August 2007, Grand Central hired a pair of Class 47 locomotives and a rake of five Mark 3 coaches, from DRS, to enable its staff to learn the route prior to the introduction of its HST fleet.^[6]

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
Class 43		Diesel locomotive	125	200	6	London - Sunderland	1976 – 1982
Mark 3 coach		Passenger Rolling stock			24	London - Sunderland	1975 - 1988

In April 2007, Grand Central announced plans to lease brand new rolling stock from 2010 to replace the HSTs, on the provision that its track-access contract is extended beyond the initial five years. In conjunction with Sovereign Trains, a newly formed rolling stock lessor, Grand Central plans to obtain new ''Polaris'' DEMU trains from China. These new express trains will be capable of up to 140 mph, which will allow them to take advantage of any future speed limit increases on the ECML.^[7].

Planned route

Grand Central intends to operate services from London Kings Cross to Sunderland.
Grand Central has announced that two of its scheduled services will be named. On Monday-Saturday, the first departure from Sunderland (06.56) will be named ''The Zephyr'', the final departure from Kings Cross (16.50) will be known as ''The 21st century Limited''.^[8]

Proposed future services

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

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 four services per day each way.

Grand Union

Under the name ''Grand Union'', Grand Central has developed a case for running services over two additional routes; Doncaster to Bradford Interchange, and London Euston to Bradford Interchange via Huddersfield.

Other proposed routes

Grand Central was originally linked with a proposal to run shortened HSTs between Newcastle and Preston, via the Durham Coast, York, Wakefield, Brighouse, Rochdale and Manchester. It later suggested a York to Chester service to be run by DMUs (probably Class 158s displaced from TransPennine Express). Neither of these proposals were approved.

References

1. London rail service winner has no trains
2. Second delay for new rail service
3. GNER fails to block rival's east coast line service
4. Grand Central Railway to operate HST power cars and loco-hauled Mk3s
5. New rail service launch delayed
6. Sunderland – London crew training trips start next week
7. Rail company's Chinese trains bid
8. Grand Central announces Safety Case acceptance

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