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NEW, cut-price train services are to be launched out of Euston to the north of England in the first ever challenge to Virgin Trains' monopoly on the West Coast Main Line.
And the once much-loved GNER rail brand is to be resurrected with the launch of new competition on East Coast Main Line services out of Kings Cross.
Passengers are promised new trains, cheaper fares, links to towns and cities currently not properly served, more travelling space and rebates if they do not get a seat
The creation of two new railway companies, Great North Western Railways and Great North Eastern Railways, was announced today by Alliance Rail, fronted by industry veteran Ian Yeowart.
The launch of GNWR and a new GNER is the biggest leap forward for so-called "open access" on the railways in which rival, unfranchised, non-subsidised train companies can run services against incumbent licensed operators.
Current open access operators include Grand Central (formerly run by Yeowart) and Hull Trains from the north-east into Kings Cross and Wrexham & Shropshire running services into Marylebone.
The GNER and GNWR brands were relinquished by former owner Sea Containers when it quit the UK rail industry after being forced to give up the Kings Cross franchise in 2006.
The new GNER services will initially run between Kings Cross and Sheffield and Huddersfield and also to Humberside.
More ambitiously, GNWR will take advantage of the end of Virgin's West Coast monopoly due in 2011 to launch Euston services as far as Carlisle, but also including for the first time direct services between Euston and Leeds.
"Virgin Trains currently operates a high-frequency service, but there are many large and important locations that are poorly served or not served at all.
"Open Access is the opportunity for those communities to see their links restored and at the same time provide some much-needed consumer choice," said Yeowart.
The plans are likely to be with the Rail Regulator for at least a year, but Yeowart believes the new services will launch in December 2013.
Reader views (5)
What is the point of these Open Access operators? It is quicker to get to destinations with current fast services, e.g. to use Virgin from Euston than the painfuly slow WSMR from Marylebone. The only people who like them are rail enthusiasts. I hope the ORR says no to these applications. The East Coast Mainline is full of them already - do we really need any more to Grimsby, when National Express plan to launch a fast service to Lincoln? This is getting ridiculous.
- Mike Buckley, Hampstead, 24/09/2009 18:07
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Oh for God's sake. We're supposed to jump with joy at this? The only thing that will have me cheering is when we send the whole load of useless, bickering, overcharging private rail companies packing and start running things like a sensible country - Germany or Switzerland perhaps.
Unfortunately, it looks like Cameron is totally in denial about the abject failure of privatisation and is determined to foist 20-year franchises on us. So we won't be able to rid ourselves of this nightmare until the 2030s. Great!
- Robert C, London UK, 24/09/2009 17:46
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Not sure how this is going to work - are we going to see a return to the free-for-all days of the mid 19th century when there were a multiplicity of small companies, many of whom went to the wall, leaving what were known as the Big Four (who subsequently became BR)?
- Blue Baby, London, 24/09/2009 16:11
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Hooray, About time Virgin with their claustrophobic trains often stinking of sewage and sky high fares were challenged.Lets hope the passengers vote with their feet
- Micky, London N4, 24/09/2009 16:04
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Where is this railway line? Fantasy Island?
Who's to say that the next West Coast franchise wont have a monopoly clause in to benefit the winner?
- Tom Watson, Leicester, 24/09/2009 16:01
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