UK: Grand Union has begun industry consultation over a proposal to operate five open access services a day between Cardiff and Edinburgh, and separately is looking at rolling stock options for its planned London – Carmarthen and London – Stirling services.
Grand Union Managing Director Ian Yeowart has told Rail Business UK that the issue of connectivity between Cardiff and Edinburgh had come up many times during discussions with stakeholders in Wales and Scotland.
The proposed services would call at Cardiff, Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction, Gloucester, Birmingham New Street, Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. The target start date is December 2025, using Class 22x trainsets.
The proposal has been raised formally with Network Rail and the Office of Rail & Road, a potential timetable has been drafted and details shared with the Department for Transport.
Yeowart said operating via Doncaster would replace connections lost following the end of many CrossCountry services which previously served the route.
‘If approved this will provide almost 1 million extra seats a year across the core route and help address some of the capacity issues that are regularly faced by those travelling cross country as well as providing significant new connectivity between South Wales, Yorkshire, the northeast and Scotland’, he said.
Carmarthen and Stirling
The Cardiff – Edinburgh application is being made under the Alliance Rail name, in order to avoid confusion with Grand Union’s existing proposals for London – Carmarthen and London – Stirling services.
Grand Union now expects a decision from ORR in ‘early 2024’ over its revised plans to use Class 22x trains to launch a London – Stirling open access service from a new start date of June 2025.
The company had been hoping to launch with a new fleet of Hitachi AT300 trainsets (Class 80x), but Yeowart said ‘there remains some uncertainty on when new rolling stock could be delivered and so it makes sense to look to enter the market earlier using available kit — if we receive approval’.
The same situation applies to the London – Carmarthen service which has already been approved by ORR but also faces uncertainty over the delivery timescale for a new fleet of bi-mode trains.
Yeowart confirmed that HSTs are not being pursued as an option, even though many are becoming available.
‘We are looking at options to start early if suitable stock is available’, he said. ‘Clearly Class 22x or possibly even Class 180 trains fit that bill but there would be work to do on changing stock type after an ORR decision.
‘HSTs are not a solution and with the 22x fleet being reliable and barely mid-life then it would be unrealistic for us not to look at options. With stock being available later in 2024 then potential start dates could be much earlier than with new build, which is why we have made the change for Stirling and are looking at options for Carmarthen.’
While Grand Union has ambitious plans for the interiors of any new-build units, including 2+1 seats in standard class and a high specification first class section, the extensive work to achieve this may not be carried out on any 22x sets it takes on.
Yeowart said a Hitachi AT300 car ‘is a significantly larger vehicle so moving to around 60 seats arranged 2+1 was a sensible and commercially viable position and one we still aspire to’. However, this is not as clear-cut an option if using existing off-lease stock, ‘although we are continuing to discuss options’, he explained.
