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You are here: Home / Rail Travel / Grand Union Trains gets the green light for Scotland to London services

Grand Union Trains gets the green light for Scotland to London services

07/03/2024 by Kevincm

It seems a new train operator will soon be operating trains on the West Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom – with Grand Union Trains getting the green light.

a sign on the railway tracks
The start of a new service to London – Image, Office of Road and Rail.

The new service will allow Grand Union Trains to start a new train service between London and the city of Stirling, from June 2025, bringing more choice to passengers, bringing private sector investment to the railway and increasing competition.

This will be for an initial period of five years.

Grand Union Trains will introduce four new return services per day between London Euston and Stirling stations.

These services will also call at Milton Keynes Central, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert. Larbert, Greenfaulds and Whifflet will receive their first direct services to London. The service will bypass Glasgow, choosing to service stations away from the city centre.

It was found that the proposed services would increase choice for passengers, significantly increasing direct journey opportunities to and from London and central and southern Scotland while making use of existing capacity on the network.

The new services will be the first run by an open-access operator on the West Coast Mainline. Open access operators run services independently of government funding as they do not have a franchise agreement with the government. Other examples include Lumo, Hull Trains and Grand Central – all of which operate on the East Coast Main Line.

Following ORR’s decision to approve new Grand Union Trains services between Carmarthen in south Wales and London Paddington in 2022, ORR has now approved open access services on three of Britain’s major routes.

In terms of rolling stock, Grand Union Trains plan to use off-lease rolling stock, such as the Class 221 Super Voyager or the Class 222 Meridian(both derivatives of the Voyager family).

In Quotes

Stephanie Tobyn, Director of Strategy, Policy and & Reform, said:

“Our decision helps increase services for passengers and boost competition on Britain’s railway network. By providing more trains serving new destinations, open access operators offer passengers more choice in the origin and price of their journey leading to better outcomes for rail users.”

Open competition at last on the West Coast Main Line

There have been more than a few false starts to completion on the West Coast Mainline, with the most notable being Alliance Railways’ plans to operate services between Blackpool and London – to the point the trains were painted and ready until the pandemic hit.

Whilst there has been plenty of competition on the East Coast Mainline, this will mark the first time an operator will operate a non-franchised service on the West Coast Mainline.

The competition had been limited to recoup investment during the West Coast Route Modernisation between 1998 and 2008, leaving the route to the franchised rail operators (currently Arriva West Coast, West Midlands Trains, TransPennine Express, Northern and Scotrail.

Adding Grand Union Trains will offer some new choices – as well as travel options across the line.

The next challenge will be to secure the rolling stock and safety certificates to deliver an operational service in time for June 2025.

We’ll be keeping more than an eye open when they start operations.


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