Grand Central

From the York Press:

Grand Central expands high-speed diesel train fleet
10:00am Tuesday 10th March 2009

YORK-BASED rail company Grand Central has signed a lease with Angel Trains for two new class 180 Adelante diesel trains.

The trains will be used on the extra direct daily service from York to London, which was given the final go-ahead last week by the Office of Rail Regulation.

The two new 125mph, five-car trains will join Grand Central’s fleet of high-speed trains and allow the firm to launch its fourth return service in the summer.

Managing director Tom Clift said: “We are very pleased to have concluded these negotiations with Angel Trains for additional trains to operate our extra services between the Durham Coast, Teesside, North Yorkshire and London.”

Meanwhile, the company has announced a new web-based service that allows customers to book competitively priced hotel accommodation and tickets to attractions throughout the UK, including West End shows.

Grand Central has established a partnership with Superbreak, a short-break accommodation provide.

Roger Wheatley, Grand Central’s marketing manager, said: “With increasing demand for Grand Central’s services we wanted to be able to offer a complete travel service to our current and future passengers.”

 

Given their experience of unreliable trains, this is an 'interesting' decision...

 

Be fair, it was only early on that they had problems with their fleet, due to the questionable quality of the overhauls that had been done. Since their power cars visited Brush for attention, they've run a reliable and popular service...but of course that isn't widely reported as it's not as "newsworthy".

The 180s aren't the most successful units in terms of reliability, but they are very well laid-out inside, and a pleasure to travel on (far more so than the Voyager family). It's just a shame they have a fondness for pyrotechnics! Being an open access operator, GC probably didn't have much choice when it came to selecting suitable rolling stock, so be thankful that it's not going to be 142s rattling down the ECML!

 

IIRC Hull trains have also taken a number of 180's so they will be a fairly frequent visitor to the ECML.

 

There's not much choice for anyone traction wise on the ECML. Anything for long distance services that's not 125 capable lands a penalty charge from NR. Thus the popularity of the 180's.

 

axiom rail stoke still have 2 of there hst coach's held to ransome at there stoke base .