Hull Trains and Grand Central suspend services

HULL Trains says ‘unprecedented circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic’ forced it to temporarily suspend all train services from March 30.

Despite running a revised timetable, the number of people travelling had dropped significantly since national guidance was issued to stay at home and stop all non-essential travel.

However, as an open access operator with no subsidy, revenues from ticket sales are its main income, and by suspending services and furloughing staff reduces its fixed costs.

As one of three open access operators, it has not been offered additional financial support from the Government, unlike franchised rail operators.

Managing director Louise Cheeseman said it “was a difficult decision but would help to safeguard the future of the business, and they planned to return as soon as possible”.

It is a similar situation for

Arriva-owned Grand Central, which run services from Sunderland and Bradford Exchange to King’s Cross.

On April 3 it announced it was suspending services for an initial two months, staff also being furloughed.

The decision by Grand Central means the start of its new Blackpool North to London Euston open access service, scheduled to begin on May 21, has been postponed until next January, as have plans for additional Sunderland to King’s Cross services.

A drastic reduction of Eurostar services has resulted in the operation of just one train to Amsterdam and Brussels (dep 11.04) and one to Paris at 11.31, with return arrivals at 16.58 and 17.58.

However, from April 20, the Amsterdam service was cut back to Brussels, and because of the widespread service reductions many staff have been furloughed.