"Too many challenges for approval": cross-country open access plan withdrawn

Grand Union has withdrawn its plan for an open access service between Cardiff and Edinburgh.

The planned service, under the Alliance banner, was to run via Birmingham New Street and Doncaster, with five services a day planned using Class 222s DMUs which would be later replaced by new-build Hitachi sets.

However, Managing Director Ian Yeowart has now written to the ORR to withdraw the application.

“The concerns now on available rolling stock, the capacity and performance implications and the changing level of support from the Department for Transport mean that the application faces, in our opinion, too many challenges to receiving ORR approval at this time,” he wrote.

He said that since consultation in late 2023 ORR had been “’engulfed’ by the large number of competing applications for new services”, particularly on both the East and West Coast Main Lines.

Yeowart said this had resulted in “some significant delay to the decision-making process”, adding: “As time has passed, the off lease rolling stock planned to initially introduce the service has been delayed and also become the subject of significant speculation as to its potential new home.”

The letter came days after Network Rail (NR) said it couldn’t support the application, in which it highlighted the many applications that have noted Class 221 or ‘222’ sets.

NR’s Aspirant Open Access Operators Manager, Gianmaria Cutrupi, told ORR there were 110 pathing conflicts which would require 218 changes to resolve.

“Key locations used by the proposed route perform poorly in existing timetables and there were unresolved conflicts between the base timetables and the proposed Alliance paths,” Cutrupi wrote.

Problem locations identified were: Cardiff Central; Gloucester; Cheltenham; Birmingham New Street; Water Orton; Sheffield; York; Edinburgh.

Cutrupi said conflicts showed a lack of capacity and demonstrated performance risks for both Alliance and the wider network.

Speaking to RAIL, Yeowart said the Cardiff-Edinburgh plan could be resubmitted in future once power supply and capacity issues are clearer, but it was becoming less likely the proposal would be approved in the current climate.

“We know there’s a requirement for more capacity on the route,” he said.

“We have done all we can. It would be easy to sit back and let ORR make a decision, but we know how busy they are.”

Yeowart added that current applications with new trains included were more likely to gain approval, and said the rail industry “needs time to settle down” following the high volume of access requests.