ORR Rejects Grand Union’s Cardiff trains

THE OFFICE of Rail and Road has rejected the application from Grand Union Trains to start an open access service on the Great Western Main Line. Led by open access veteran Ian Yeowart, the operator applied to run seven daily services between London Paddington and Cardiff Central from December 2021, calling at Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction and Newport and using Class 91/Mk 4 trains. It said it would replace these from December 2023 with new Hitachi bi-mode Class 802s and proposed to extend the services to Carmarthen, with limited stops at Swansea and Llanelli.

Network Rail had identified there was enough spare capacity for six of the seven return services, but it also raised concerns about the impact of the new trains, relative to Great Western Railway’s December 2019 timetable change that added 89 additional services. The ORR determined that revenue abstraction (loss of revenue to a competitor) from GWR services was 0.42:1 higher than the 0.3 threshold allowed for any new service to claim it would not primarily be abstractive. Furthermore, the COVID-19 impact and its effect on reduction in demand has led to the ORR to place additional emphasis on the impact of revenue abstraction and to determine that the absolute level of abstraction would be £28.6m per annum for six daily return trains, or £34.2m for seven. This was the reason why the ORR rejected the application. GUT released a statement saying it “was considering its options”.