Operator: Grand Central
Headcode: 1A65
Route: SUN-KGX
Class: 1st Class
Seat: E13
Date: Wednesday 29th March 2023
Following a couple of days based in Newcastle to complete some more Exploring the East Coast (read about those here and here), I had decided to make my way back south by a slightly more unusual method. As such I headed from the Tyne to the Wear and to Sunderland station to begin my journey to London with Grand Central.
Grand Central are one of Great Britain’s four open access train operators (the others being Hull Trains, Lumo & Heathrow Express) meaning they operate services outside of those prescribed by the Government via franchises or management contracts. Generally, these are traditionally underserved markets such as the Durham coast direct to London.
Grand Central run trains across two routes, London-Bradford and the London-Sunderland route I was travelling on. On the Sunderland route, there are six return services each day (five on Sundays) and I was booked onto the fourth southbound service, the 1230 departure from Sunderland. Having caught the hourly Northern service from Newcastle, I was at Sunderland station about half an hour before departure and so saw the inbound service arriving from King’s Cross around 25 minutes before our departure. Unfortunately, owing to the limited capacity at Sunderland, the unit is required to shunt to a siding before coming back to the other platform for departure. This requires three reversing moves and means the train is only available to board for less than 5 minutes prior to departure.
Grand Central operates just one type of train, class 180 DMUs, units which are now 22-23 years old and despite refurbishments are becoming quite tired. These units also unfortunately went through a period of unreliability a few years ago with two units deciding to spontaneously combust whilst in service, thankfully without any injuries or major damage, but with plenty of disruption. Thankfully the reliability has improved and there haven’t been any major failures in the last few years.
Each Grand Central class 180 unit is made up of five carriages, with four being standard class and one being dedicated to first class. Weirdly the carriages are labelled B to F, with first class being in coach E, the second from one end (from the front in this instance). First class is in the usual 1-2 configuration across the aisle, with the seats mostly grouped around tables but with a handful of ‘airline style’ seats.
As we waited for the unit to return from the siding I was surprised with how busy the platform was, given the quicker route south with LNER from nearby Newcastle, and once we had boarded I saw that first-class was about 1/3rd full with plenty more seats reserved from further on in the journey. Unfortunately, the number of people did not help the temperature, with the carriage unfortunately being a bit on the warm side.
Our journey to London was scheduled to have just five intermediate stops, and with an on-time departure we were soon winding our way along the coast towards the first stop at Hartlepool. With its moored tall ship, Hartlepool certainly knows how to intrigue me and I think I’ll need to pay the town a visit at some point in the future.
Following the stop at Hartlepool, there were stops scheduled at Eaglescliffe, Northallerton, Thirsk and York before we were then planned to run non-stop to London, with the final leg taking about 2 hours to complete. The timetable also allowed for a six minute wait outside Northallerton to allow an LNER service to pass ahead of us, and during this pause in our journey I was able to catch a glimpse of one of GBRF’s class 60s coming off of the avoider on its way to the Port of Tyne with a rake of empty biomass wagons from Drax.
Onboard in first class there was a bottle of water on every seat and the ability to order at seat refreshments via a QR code. First class tickets include a tea or coffee and two snack items from the menu, whilst the other products from the menu can still be purchased at an additional cost. With a journey time of just over three and a half hours, I decided to have a snack and then purchase something a bit more substantial after York.
The route from Sunderland to York via the Durham coast is a much slower route than via the East Coast Mainline (ECML), with the first half of the journey taking about 95 minutes whilst a Newcastle to York journey with LNER would take between 50 and 55 minutes. However with some excellent scenery out of the window as we wound our way along the coast, the extra time wasn’t noticed and we were soon pulling into York ready to begin the fast run south.
If the scenery isn’t enough to keep you occupied onboard, there is of course Wi-Fi available and on Grand Central this also provides access to a wide range of audiobooks, e-books, podcasts and games via the Wi-Fi portal. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi itself was a bit of a struggle in terms of connectivity and beyond York became completely useless.
As we continued south I decided to order some more refreshments and so spent just over £5 for a bacon ciabatta and a coke. Whilst the ordering system was fairly simple, I can only assume there was a lot of demand in standard class and it took more than 20-minutes for the this to be delivered by the onboard crew. The rest of the journey south was pretty uneventful and we were soon passing through Peterborough fast, something I rarely do at my home station.
Whilst the journey was fairly unimpeded, we did seem to slow a bit between Hitchin and Welwyn and eventually arrived into Kings Cross two minutes late, so I can only assume we were finding our way around a slower service. However the Hitchin to Welwyn section of the ECML does tend to become a bit congested, with services coming off of the Cambridge branch just before it drops to a two-track railway across the Welwyn viaduct.
All in all the journey with Grand Central was comfortable, pleasant and punctual, however I probably wouldn’t travel that route again as it doesn’t really work for me with no stop at Peterborough. If I was visiting one of the intermediate stations between York and Sunderland, I may change on to Grand Central at York (similar to what we did in 2020 – read about that here). However, if Grand Central’s routes and schedules work for you, they are certainly pleasant enough to travel with.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 4*
Service 4*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 17/25 (read about my rating system here!)
Flights & Times 