Sunderland-based transport giant Arriva Group said it is submitting an application for expanded UK open access rail connections between Yorkshire, the Humber and London’s Kings Cross.
Arriva said it has notified Network Rail that it is submitting an open access application to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) for direct services between Cleethorpes, Grimsby and London, making use of Grand Central’s existing open access route to Doncaster and extending the service to new underserved areas.
Arriva is a portfolio company of Miami-based I Squared Capital — the independent global infrastructure investor with over $38 billion in assets under management.
“The proposals are expected to be welcomed by communities, businesses and organisations in East Lincolnshire, who have been campaigning for the reintroduction of direct rail links to London, with Cleethorpes not having a direct service for over 30 years,” said Arriva.
“If approved, the extended route will provide additional capacity and improved connectivity with four new return services per day and over 775,000 additional seats annually made available between Cleethorpes, Grimsby and London’s Kings Cross.”
Amanda Furlong, Interim Managing Director of Arriva’s UK Trains division, said: “Arriva wants to make travelling by train as accessible as possible and this proposal will offer a much-needed, direct connection between major Lincolnshire towns and the capital, providing significant connectivity benefits for communities and businesses and driving long-term economic growth for the region”.
Arriva said that as well as providing additional capacity, Grand Central’s proposed new connections will unlock significant economic benefits, with a study by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership estimating a Cleethorpes-London service could generate up to £30.1 million annually for the region.
“In addition to this application to expand services in Lincolnshire, Grand Central has previously submitted two other applications with the ORR, including proposals for two extra daily return services between Bradford and London and an early morning and late evening return from York to London,” said Arriva.
“The operator also has an outstanding application to extend its existing track access rights until 2038.
“Arriva is committed to encouraging the shift to passenger transport by providing sustainable solutions which encourage communities to use alternatives to private vehicles.
“The group’s open access operator, Grand Central, provides connections to under-served communities, making effective use of unused network capacity to provide value-for-money services without government funding.
“Arriva is the only owning group to operate under all contract types currently in use on Britain’s railway, including national rail contracts under Chiltern and CrossCountry, a concessionary contract under Arriva Rail London as well as the open access model under the Grand Central brand.
“Arriva also supports the critical maintenance of rolling stock through Arriva Train Care, and provides customer focussed rail replacement services through Arriva Road Transport Solutions. It also owns a digital smart ticketing platform called ACE (Arriva Customer Engine).”
Arriva is a provider of passenger transport across Europe, employing around 34,400 people and delivering around 1.6 billion passenger journeys with buses, trains, coaches, trams, waterbuses, bike-sharing systems, on-demand transport solutions and a rolling stock leasing company.
The activities of Arriva are divided into four business units: UK Bus, UK Trains, The Netherlands and Mainland Europe. Arriva has passenger transport operations in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom, and also operates a rolling stock leasing company in Romania.