Capacity fears as private operators apply for access

A total of 85 separate applications have been lodged to launch new rail services or extend existing ones, prompting concerns that the busiest parts of the UK network could fall under increasingly intense pressure over the next five years.

Many are from full-risk concerns that will be independent of government control when existing train operators’ current contracts expire or are terminated early.

Network Rail is keeping a close eye on the current flurry of approaches to the Office of Rail and Road. While supportive of greater utilisation of some routes, the company warns that some of the busiest routes are already close to their saturation point.

For example, it cites proposals by Alliance Rail to launch a new Cardiff-Edinburgh service as possibly problematic, because of more than 100 clash points with existing services at key revenue-earning locations such as Gloucester, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, York and Newcastle.

Alliance’s response has been to come up with twice that number of solutions. It says that Doncaster would see the return of more direct services to Birmingham and beyond, which have dropped from hourly to just four each day.

NR also points to particular problems in the Midlands and North West, where a long-running heavy engineering and upgrade programme that includes the trans-Pennine corridor from Manchester to Leeds and beyond means that existing operators may struggle to maintain their current timetables even without new competition.

Further NR concerns relate to infrastructure. For example, it does not fully support Caledonian Sleeper’s application to call at Birmingham International because its platforms are not long enough.

Freight operator DB Cargo made a total of 13 applications for new paths in the 12 months after May 2023, covering all its core businesses of aggregates, steel, petroleum, intermodal and waste.

Freightliner has registered a total of 12 for its intermodal and heavy haul sectors, while Legge Infrastructure Services, Freightliner and GB Railfreight have all sought new train paths for construction trains to the Sizewell C nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast.

Full details of all the new service applications can be viewed on the ORR’s online register. It is not clear how many of the applications will be null and void if and when the government terminates contracts.

Applications for new services

The passenger newcomers are:

• Alliance Rail (new Edinburgh-Cardiff service).
• Virgin Group (Euston to West Coast Main Line destinations).
• Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway (Wrexham-Euston).
• The other non-subsided businesses are:
• Grand Central (additional daily services to Bradford, Wakefield and York, with new calls at Seaham and Peterborough).
• Hull Trains (two additional King’s Cross-Sheffield services and one to Hull).
• Lumo (Rochdale to Euston, an extra Newcastle-King’s Cross, and Edinburgh-Glasgow extensions).
• Varamis Rail (Firm operating rights).
• Subject to government intervention, existing operators that have applied for changes are:
• Caledonian Sleeper (More Euston station capacity and an additional call at Birmingham International).
• TransPennine Express (additional track access rights between Huddersfield and Leeds, and Newcastle-Edinburgh extension).
• Avanti West Coast (timetable alterations and restoration of pre-COVID services).
• East Midlands Railway (Extension of Crewe-Newark services to Lincoln and East Midlands-Manchester Sunday services).
• CrossCountry Trains (Cardiff-Edinburgh direct, plus more Reading-York/Newcastle services).
• LNER (Bradford and Middlesbrough services, to and from Bradford Forster Square at weekends, and more York-Newcastle trains).
• Northern (Leeds-Sheffield extras and greater use of the East Coast Main Line).
• West Midlands Trains (Shrewsbury-Liverpool, Camp Hill and Cross-City North lines access, and Stratford service acceleration).
• In addition, South Yorkshire Future Trams seeks to make an additional Supertram call at Magna/Rotherham Central.