Rolling stock deadline prompted Grand Union's sale of Carmarthen open access rights to FirstGroup

A deadline for securing brand new rolling stock was one of the reasons behind the decision to sell Grand Union’s London Paddington-Carmarthen open access rights to FirstGroup.

The transport operator announced the acquisition of Grand Union Trains GWML Holdings Limited and Grand Union Trains No. 2 Limited in early December. The purchase comes three months after it completed a similar deal for the open access operator’s planned London Euston-Stirling service.

Grand Union was originally given approval by the Office of Rail and Road in December 2022 for ten-year track rights to run five trains a day to South Wales, starting two years later. However, in the summer of 2023 that was put back to December 2027.

ORR had also imposed a deadline of November 30 2024 to order rolling stock for the South Wales service, after it became clear that second-hand units couldn’t be used.

Initially, Grand Union wanted to use Class 222 diesel-electric multiple units, but Managing Director Ian Yeowart said these units would be unable to reach their 125mph top speed.

The ‘222s’ are not fitted with Automatic Train Protection (ATP), which is in use on the South Wales Main Line between Paddington and Chipping Sodbury.

Even if fitted with ATP, they would be limited to a maximum of 110mph, meaning they would have been unable to keep to the South Wales and Great Western Main Line timetables, which require 125mph running.

Yeowart said the process to upgrade the units would be “long”, telling RAIL: “I didn’t want to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds [on them].”

This means that new trains had to be ordered - a requirement which Yeowart described as “too much” for Grand Union.

“Initially, using off-lease, our ‘exposure’ as a small company was acceptable. But with new build, the exposure was significantly greater,” he explained.

“While we felt we could address the situation as we had options, we were also faced with a significant contract ‘end date’ that we almost certainly could not meet in relation to a new train order. No such issues exist for larger trading groups.”

ORR had approved extending the order deadline to January 21 2025. However, the initial November target was ultimately met, with FirstGroup and Grand Union confirming it had met ORR’s condition on November 29.

FirstGroup then announced an order for Class 80x units from Hitachi on December 6, a day after the acquisition of the Carmarthen operation was made public.

Once up and running, services will call at Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport, Cardiff Central, Gowerton and Llanelli.

FirstGroup has now ordered 14 ‘80x’ Hitachi units, in a £500 million deal that includes a ten-year lease and maintenance. The sets will be used on the Carmarthen route and to strengthen existing Lumo and Hull Trains services on the East Coast Main Line.

The Paddington-Carmarthen service will also operate under the Lumo banner, as will a new Paddington-Paignton service, which FirstGroup wants to launch

in 2028 (see pages 8-9). FirstGroup wants to run five trains a day to and from the Devon resort via Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St Davids and Torquay, with a sixth also calling at Highbridge & Burnham.

If ORR approves the plan, along with FirstGroup’s requests to run between London Euston and Rochdale via Manchester Victoria, and to extend some London King’s Cross-Edinburgh Waverley services to Glasgow Central, it could trigger a £460m order for an additional 13 ‘80x’ sets from Hitachi.