Office of Rail and Road approves new services at Peterborough
Yesterday (Friday 24 November), the Office of Rail and Road (ORR)[1] gave approval to open access operator Grand Central[2] to run services from Peterborough[3] station.
This will allow two existing Grand Central services in each direction to call at Peterborough each day from Monday to Saturday.
Peterborough, which has recently been awarded ‘levelling up’ funding[4] to improve its connection to the city centre, is an important station on the East Coast Mainline, and is also served by local lines and west-to-east lines.
Credit: Network Rail
London North Eastern Railway[5] (LNER), CrossCountry[6], Great Northern[7], Greater Anglia[8], East Midlands Railway (EMR) and Thameslink[9] all run services which stop at the station.
ORR’s policy is to support new open-access services where this creates competition and benefits passengers, and where the new services can run alongside existing services without causing undue impact on network performance. The Office reports that, in making its decision, it also considered the impact on government funds and the effect on other railway users.
Stephanie Tobyn, Director, Strategy, Policy & Reform, said: “Open access services promote competition on the rail network and give passengers more choice about how they travel. With passenger numbers still not quite recovered following the pandemic, it’s important that the network provides options for all as the industry looks to increase passenger journeys.
“ORR plays a crucial role in overseeing competition on our railway, and we’ll continue to assess open access applications with the goal of providing greater consumer choice, value and performance.”
References
- ^ Posts tagged with Office of Rail and Road (ORR) (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with Grand Central (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with Peterborough (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ recently been awarded ‘levelling up’ funding (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with London North Eastern Railway (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with CrossCountry (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with Great Northern (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with Greater Anglia (www.railadvent.co.uk)
- ^ Posts tagged with Thameslink (www.railadvent.co.uk)