Grand Central halts its London service

Rail operator Grand Central is suspending all Sunderland and Hartlepool trains “for an initial two months” following a downturn in passenger numbers.

The company, which runs daily services from the North-East to London’s King’s Cross station, said the measure was “necessary but temporary” following the public lockdown triggered by the coronavirus outbreak.

Services were temporarily suspended from the end of last night and the majority of the company’s staff are to be placed on the Government’s furlough wage prote ction scheme.

Plans for an additional daily Sunderland-Hartlepool-King’s Cross service are also now “paused” .

Managing Director Richard McClean said: “So far we have offered a rail service, under a reduced timetable, in order to keep key-workers moving at a time of crisis.

“This comes with all the costs of running a train service, while bringing no ticket revenue to our business.

“This situation is unsustainable and, following several days of discussion with the Department for Transport (DfT), we have no alternative but to suspend our services.

“Customers who have a ticket to travel with Grand Central can claim a full refund from the place they bought their ticket.

“People who absolutely need to travel, in line with government restrictions, can use their Grand Central ticket to travel on other train companies’ services,” he added.

Refund details are available at