East Coast Main Line passengers are set to benefit from additional train services starting in December, after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) approved timetable enhancements.
The regulator granted permission to open access operators Lumo, Grand Central, and Hull Trains for some new routes. However, other proposed services were rejected due to concerns over insufficient capacity, potential performance impacts, and the effect on government revenue.
Approved changes include Lumo extending London King’s Cross-Edinburgh services to Glasgow, and adding more routes between London King’s Cross and Newcastle.
Hull Trains will run an additional train from London King’s Cross to Hull on weekdays and Saturdays, while Grand Central will increase its regional operation, including a new link to Seaham on the County Durham coast.
Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform, said: “Approving these additional open access services will increase connectivity on the East Coast Main Line.
“Importantly, we have ensured the approval of these services can be accommodated alongside the major service uplifts by other operators, which have been planned into the December 2025 timetable, so together passengers and freight customers can benefit from more direct connections and greater choice from December.”
Among the rejected proposals was a plan from Hull Trains for new services between London King’s Cross and Sheffield.
Owner FirstGroup said it was “disappointed” by the decision, as the plan would have provided Sheffield with its first regular service from London King’s Cross since 1968, and introduced a direct service to the capital for “an estimated 350,000 people in the Worksop and Woodhouse catchment areas”.
Open access operators set their own fares, take on all revenue risk and receive no taxpayer-funded subsidies.
They are excluded from the Government’s ongoing nationalisation of Britain’s train services.
In January, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander wrote to the ORR expressing concerns that the open access model can cause “potential congestion” and result in taxpayers being “left to fill shortfalls” in maintenance costs.
She stated that she expects “the impacts on the taxpayer and on overall performance” to be “given primacy” by the regulator when it analyses open access proposals.
Government-owned LNER, which runs services on the East Coast Main Line, is planning a major timetable change in December, with up to 37 daily services and quicker journeys between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh.
It has previously described the overhaul as “transformational” and “the biggest change in a generation”.
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