Category Archives: Grand Central trains

Grand Central release details of their new Blackpool – London service, starting in 2020.

25 Tuesday Jun 2019

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Yesterday open-access operator Grand Central Trains (part of the Arriva group) announced details of their new service which is due to begin running in Spring 2020. Five trains a day each way will operate Monday – Saturday, with four on Sundays. Trains will call at the following stations – although the last two Southbound M-F service won’t  call at Milton Keynes.

GC blackpool 1

The company has also released a provisional timetable. The stopping pattern has been changed (with no Warrington call as originally proposed) to address ORR’s concerns about abstracting revenue from existing franchises. The services are expected to be worked by Class 91 locomotives, 6 Mk4 coaches and a Driving Trailer (DVT) which will ne taken off-lease by LNER later this year.

GC blackpool 2

These services were proposed as long ago as 2015. In fact, I remember doing the photography at a stakeholder event with GC in Blackpool back in November 2010, which gives you an idea just how long it can take to get these new routes off the ground.

Originally, the service wasn’t expected to be able to get into Euston station due to constraints caused by the construction of HS2. Instead, Network Rail could only guarantee paths as far as Queens Park station where there’s an interchange with both the Watford DC lines and also London Underground’s Bakerloo Line. However, changes to the HS2 programme around Euston mean that there’s a lot less disruption so GC will be able to ‘go all the way’.

It will be very interesting to see how this service develops. Grand Central have a proud history of developing routes that would normally be neglected by the franchises but it can take time, faith and money. I remember when GC started their West Riding service from Bradford Interchange to London Kings Cross back in 2010. In the very early days passenger loadings could be as little as 24 on a 287 seat train (I know because I’ve been a regular since the service started so used to keep count). Nowadays, you’ll be lucky to find a seat – even in First Class! Hopefully the Blackpool’s will start from a higher base. Whichever way, the service will provide around 90 more jobs and better connectivity between one of the North’s most popular seaside resorts and the capital, allowing this livery to become a regular sight on the West Coast Main Line…

DG268093. 180105. Oakleigh Park. 27.3.17crop.jpg

 

Rolling blog: destination Derby…

02 Sunday Dec 2018

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It’s Sunday afternoon but there’s no rest for the wicked! I’m en-route to Derby for a night in a hotel before an early morning commission and an appointment with a Government Minister.

These short December days make it feel far later than it really is. As I type this on my phone I was surprised to see the time in the corner of the screen only showing 16:40.

I’m on a Grand Central service that was going to take me to Wakefield for an onward connection to Derby, but (surprise surprise) it’s been delayed by other late running trains, so I’ll miss my connection. Instead I’m going to stay on this train and go via Doncaster and Sheffield before heading down to Derby. This service (the 16:14 off Halifax) is actually quite quiet, which makes a change! I normally struggle to get a seat on GC services nowadays!

What’s good about this train is that omits the stop at ‘Pontycarlo’ (as Ponfefract is often known) as we run via Hare Park Junction to gain the East Coast Main Line from Leeds, which speeds up the journey considerably as there’s no crawl along the normally freight only line from Knottingley.

16:15

Best laid plans, etc!

Luke, our Guard has just announced we’re stuck behind an all stations service into Doncaster, which means we’re already late (again).

On the bright side, there’s a frequent service from Doncaster to Sheffield, so I won’t have long to wait when we do arrive…

17:37.

That went well! I stepped straight off the Grand Central service (which loads of passengers were joining) and crossed the platform to the bay where A rather special Pacer was waiting to head to Shefgield – the unique rebuilt 144012.

18:45.

On the move again after having a quick break in Sheffield between trains to grab a sandwich and a pint at the ‘tap.

Now I’m on a packed East Midlands Trains Meridian. As is often the case, I’m stuck in a vestibule. It was quite amusing as a group of young football fans asked me to take a picture of them with somebody on one of their iPhones. I’d no idea who it was but apparently they’d me a football commentator on the train and he agreed to a picture with them. As I’m not a footie fan I wouldn’t know him from Adam (unless he was Gary Linaker) but they were well happy and he seemed quite pleasant and unassuming.

19:48

I make it to Derby only 3 minutes late – and into the new island platform too!

DG314207crop

I’m now checked into the old Midland Hotel opposite the station and sorting out some work and pictures before nipping out for an hour to meet someone. Thanks to the power of social media a friend who lives here has realised that I’m in town, so for the second time in 4 days I’m meeting another of my Ride India friends, at the Railstaff awards I saw Katerina Deligianni, this time it’s Martin Ward.

21:38

What a lovely evening in Derby, chatting about the industry with Martin and an ex-colleague of his who now works for WMT. Here’s a clue where we were.

Now it’s back to the hotel for me as I have research to do and a busy day tomorrow.

Expect a rolling blog that takes in Government Ministers, trains, travel and Carol singing…

Rolling blog: Monday moves.

02 Monday Jul 2018

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After a weekend at home I’m on the move again, heading for London on a packed Grand Central service from Halifax. Even First Class is full. The success of this service proves the people who claim fast trains to London suck people and money to London (such as Hs2 antis) wrong. First class is full of Yorkshire based businessmen who’re going down to London to do business. The money they earn will be repatriated to where their companies are based and they live: Yorkshire, not London. The train crew are the same. They’re all from Yorkshire too! Grand Central as a company has its head office in York. So far from sucking money and talent to London, the opposite is true – this is a pipeline pumping money North…

As my meetings in London aren’t till later I’ve deviated today and stopped off at the restored Wakefield Kirkgate station. Who would’ve thought a place I once dubbed tbe UK’s worst station would one day sport a cafe and a First Class lounge (thanks to Grand Central)?

11:32. Having taken the ‘scenic route’ via Sheffield and the Midland Main Line I’m now speeding towards Luton on mh way to the capital. I’ve been joined by two members of London Underground staff commuting into work. One from Kettering and the other Bedford! That’s quite a distance to come to work on the tube, but it does say something about how unaffordable housing in the capital has become.

22:14.

Sorry folks, today’s rolling blog’s been pretty thin gruel. I’ve been busy with meetings and trying to sort out pictures for a mag so I’ve really not had the time to post anything. I’ll try and do better tomorrow as I’ll be on the move again…

Today’s rolling blog

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

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07:35
Expect today’s blog to unfold over the day as things happen. I’m currently on a fully booked Grand Central service (even 1st Class has no seats left) from Halifax to London for a days photograph around the capital. Fortunately (thanks to the crew) I’ve managed to secure a seat as I’ve an article to write and pictures to edit before I hit the capital.

It’s a beautiful morning here in Yorkshire so my mile and a half, thirty minute walk to the station was a pleasure rather than a chore – and the Yorkshire stone pavements and cobbled streets were quaint rather than being the death trap they can turn into in icy weather!

I’m going to keep this blog updated with thoughts and experiences throughout the day as and when they happen – and time permits. Let’s see what happens…

10:08.

A productive morning so far. One 1000 word article written, pix edited and to cap it all, the weather’s picking up. We’re about to pull into Kings Cross now…

12:36

Thanks to some Facebook friends who work on the railways I received updated information on which services the re-liveried South Western Railway trains were working. This gave me time to saunter over to Euston and check out progress on the HS2 work there. Workers were busy levelling the Western side of Euston Gardens to create the temporary taxi rank to replace the underground one which will close to allow demolition of the area.

DG293960. Temporary taxi rank. Euston. 21.3.18

From Euston I caught to tube to Waterloo and awaited my quarry to arrive in the shape of Desiro 450111 which was (allegedly) working the 10.24 Portsmouth to Waterloo. I filled my time sending pictures to accompany the article I’d written earlier, via the rather glacial station wifi – although to be fair – the file sizes I’m sending aren’t exactly small! I needn’t have worried as a check on ‘RealTime Trains’ showed me that 2P34 was running an hour late! It seems the signalling on the SWML is having another of its regular hissy fits. Still, it gives me time to update this…

14:40.

Ever had on of those days? When the train I’d been waiting for finally turned up it seemed there had been a unit swap and the sole re-liveried Class 450 I’d been waiting for wasn’t working it! Muttering under my breath, I abandoned Waterloo and headed down to Clapham Junction to make the most of the good weather instead. I’m here now and this is how it looks…

DG294010. 707016. 707026. Clapham Junction. 21.3.18

Hello, goodbye. Some of the recently introduced Siemens Class 707s which are going to be displaced as part of the new franchises massive new fleet order.

DG294014. 456003. Clapham Junction. 21.3.18

Old train – new skyline. The constantly changing face of London’s evident behind a BR Class 456 – another of the units which is due to be displaced and go off lease in the near future.

I’ve another bite of the cherry this evening when a pair of re-liveried DMUs are meant to be working the 17:52 Waterloo – Salisbury. Let’s hope I have more luck this time…

As luck would have it an old friend (Steve Upton) who drives for SWR got in touch and we had time for a coffee at Waterloo before he took his first train out. I used it to get back to Clapham where I exploited the dying rays of the sun and the London skyline to frame a few more pictures as I waited to see if the train I was stalking would turn up.

Thumbs up from the driver!

Finally – after numerous false starts and hours of waiting, one of the re-liveried trains (in this case a Class 158) passed through en-route to Waterloo, but fate had the last laugh. The damned thing was sandwiched in-between two units in the old SWT livery! I chased it back to Waterloo where I got my first look at the new colours.

Sorry guys and gals, but to say your livery choice is underwhelming is an understatement. I’m sure you’ve spent a lot of money on coming up with something that sets you apart from the previous incumbent. The problem is that SWT had vibrant liveries, blocks of colour that stood out in the landscape and also set apart their suburban services from long-distance. What have you come up with? Several shades of dull. The idea of barely distinguishable narrow stripes may have looked good on the drawings. The problem is that – when your train flashes past at speed, no-one will even notice them. From a marketing perspective it’s akin to a new Puritanism. You’ve taken all the fun out of things. Is this really the image that you wanted to project? OK, at the end of the day, liveries are just coats of paint (or, in your case, vinyl) that do nothing to enhance punctuality or reliability. But they still convey a message. So, what was the message you thought you were conveying, ‘cos fun – it ain’t.

DG294094

UPDATE: 22nd March.

OK, livery rant and day in London over, it’s time to move on to other things. Expect another blog later today when I’m back on familiar territory and I’ve crunched the final numbers on the Stop Hs2 petition which finally ran out of time yesterday. Did it reach 100,000? Did it heck as like…

 

Welcome to the week

19 Monday Feb 2018

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The long spell of wet weather’s continued its run this morning so for the first time in a long while I was left with no option but to get a taxi to the station. Normally I walk the mile and a half as it’s good exercise – and it saves me a fiver! There is an upside to the rain. It’s not snow, so the weather’s obviously warming up…

Right now I’m en-route to London aboard the first Grand Central train of the day from Halifax, the 07.08. Today it’s being worked by one of the ex-GWR Class 180s that transferred to GC after being displaced by the new Hitachi Class 800s. The GWR 180s aren’t bad but they need a little TLC and a refresh to bring them up to GC standards. Whatever type of set used, what remains unchanged is the friendliness of the GC staff running them. One of the beauties of being a regular traveller on a small company like GC is that you soon get to know the staff, some of the old hands have been with the company since it started the West Riding service from Bradford back in 2010.

Now it’s time for me to sit back and enjoy the trip. I have coffee, porridge for breakfast and wifi, plus ever changing scenery outside the window. See you later!

Who nicked the sunshine?

08 Monday Jan 2018

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It’s been one of those days! I’m heading to London but the trip’s not been without hiccups. The day started well. Despite all the cars on our road being covered in frost the temperature seemed quite mild and my walk to the station was slip-free and pleasant. Halifax is quiet at 06:30, so there’s little to disturb your thoughts – which makes a nice change! The station was quieter than normal too, mainly because it’s another Northern Rail strike day, but as I was using Grand Central I wasn’t bothered. One of their ‘new’ ex-GWR sets arrived (on time) to take me South but my plans were immediately thrown into confusion as the wifi was up the spout.

I normally use trains as mobile offices as much as anything else and factor in wifi as a vital part of the service. However, every cloud has a silver lining, so not being glued to my laptop screen meant I could savour the view from the window. Yorkshire looked beautiful. The landscape was covered in thick frost, lakes were frozen and a sense of stillness was palpable. To cap it off the sunrise through a cloudless sky was sublime, it illuminated the contrails of a gaggle of airliners all heading East towards Europe, leaving me wondering where each one was actually heading for. Sadly, the experience was marred when I got to Doncaster as a cab fault led to my train being cancelled! Grand Central did their best to provide an alternative by arranging for a Sunderland – Kings Cross service running 10 mins behind us to stop & scoop everyone up but I decided to wait for an hour and catch the next Southbound Bradford. My unexpected break gave me time to use the station internet access which was just as well as the 08:31 was another former GWR 180 without wifi! 

Now I’m heading through Cambridgeshire, typing this on my phone. The stunning weather we had up North came to an abrupt end when we met a solid wall of cloud North of Peterborough. It’s dull misty and rather depressing here, which is a shame. Still, let’s see what London brings…

On the road again

27 Monday Mar 2017

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I’m currently enjoying the hospitality of Grand Central trains as I’m on my way to London for a couple of days. I’ve a job photographing some new trains  on a franchise that was announced to be changing hands today! Stagecoach have run the SouthWest Trains franchise since February 1996, making it the longest running UK rail franchise. It’ll come to an end in August when a joint venture between First Group and MTR take over. The SWT franchise is a good indicator of how rail traffic has grown. When it started, their trains were carrying 108 million passengers a year. Today, that figure is over 230 million! As is common in new franchise deals nowadays lots of new trains are in the pipeline. This time it’s going to be 750 new vehicles (90 ten or five car trains.) as well as 18 refurbished and re-tractioned 5-car Class 442s for Portsmouth services.  I can’t help cracking a wry smile at the news. After all, those opposing Hs2 always insisted that the project was sucking up all the money from the existing network!

I saw further signs of that investment on the Journey from Halifax. There are grand plans to completely rebuild the station with an extra platform, demolish the existing station buildings and entrance and transform it into a major transport interchange. Meanwhile, Network Rail and its contractors have been busy trackside. Track’s been renewed at the West end of the station and there’s more evidence of progress on the resignalling scheme. New concrete cable troughing is appearing all over the place – along with a new trackside depot at Greetland Junction, complete with hardstands for RRV’s to access the track. Lineside trees have been cleared in many places, opening up a railway which was getting quite overgrown in some places.

I’ll look forward to reporting on progress over the next few months.