A rail company that wants to operate direct Bradford to London trains on the East Coast Mainline says it also wants to run services between the two cities along the West Coast Mainline.

Grand Union, set up by Grand Central Railways, has advised the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) that it intends to seek access rights to operate services into Bradford from London Euston via the West Coast Mainline (WCML).

Under the new proposals, services would run non-stop between Euston and Stockport, then call at Guide Bridge and Huddersfield, with trains extending to Halifax and Bradford Interchange.

As well as benefiting Bradford, this would allow the Calderdale and Kirklees areas to be served with a direct rail link to the capital. The services would be operated by new-build trains capable of running at up to 140mph.

Ian Yeowart, Grand Union's managing director, said plans to run services along the East Coast Mainline (ECML) were more developed than the WCML proposals.

He said: "We are in detailed discussions with Network Rail to run six trains a day between Bradford and London on the ECML - three up trains and three down.

"We would want to do at least the same on the WCML so, in theory, there could be six Bradford to London trains a day - three on each line."

At first, Grand Union thought it would have to wait until 2011/12 to commence services on the WCML because the route's current franchise operator has protection against competition.

But Mr Yeowart now believes it will not be necessary to wait another four years, stating that his company is exploring ways of gaining access to the route by 2009 by avoiding conflict with the franchise company's "protected flows".

"We are now looking at it in a way which will allow us to access the WCML before 2012, because it is only the point to point flows that are restricted between Stockport and London, not access to the whole route," said Mr Yeowart.

Grand Central has continued to develop its plans for extra services, despite having an application to run four extra trains a day between Bradford and London turned down by the ORR in January 2006.

Mr Yeowart said: "There is a major difference between then and now. Back then, Grand Central was a theoretical company and people were unsure about us. But now, people can see that the company is up and running and operating services between Sunderland and London.

"Just because the Bradford service has not happened in the last 12 or 24 months does not mean it won't happen.

"We have got the belief and the staying power. We will make our submissions in the first half of this year working with Network Rail, which has been very positive about developments for the East Coast in and out of Bradford.

"There will be an announcement in the next few months about what we have officially applied for, and we will be looking to galvanise the people of West Yorkshire and get their full support."

Mr Yeowart said he hoped Grand Union could benefit from the recent handing over of the ECML franchise from GNER, a company that strongly opposed the appearance of competition from an open access rail operator on the route.

He said he hoped there would be less animosity with the new franchise operator National Express, which he said entered into the franchise in full knowledge that another company was already operating on the line and wanted to run more trains.

e-mail: will.kilner@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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