GNER may run again but not to North East

Sep 25 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

TRAINS could once again be running up part of the East coast under the GNER name – but not as far as the North East.

Ian Yeowart, a former business development director at Grand Central, has submitted plans to run GNER trains up to Hull.

Mr Yeowart, now Alliance Rail director, wants the Office of Rail Regulation to give him permission to go up against some of the country’s biggest transport companies and run services from 2014.

He believes his experiences setting up the first direct arrival in Sunderland from the capital in more than 20 years will give him the perfect background to open up yet more routes.

The GNER name has been up for grabs since previous owners US firm Sea Containers went bankrupt in 2006.

Before that the name was owned by Mr Yeowart, who said he only discovered the marketing opportunity while trying to secure the GNWR name for his West coast trains.

Mr Yeowart, who has seen Grand Central overcome early difficulty, wants to run four new services between King’s Cross, Sheffield and Huddersfield as well as four trains to Grimsby and Cleethorpes and an ’inter-city’ service between Hull and Liverpool under GNER.

Sister company GNWR would run trains between Euston, Huddersfield and Leeds, services to Halifax and Bradford and a train to Carlisle via Barrow and the Cumbrian coast.