PBO-YRK Grand Central 1st Class

Operator: Grand Central

Headcode: 1N90

Route:    PBO-YRK

Class:    1^st Class

Seat:     E22 E16

Date:     Monday 24^th June 2024

With my AvGeek posts such as ‘Heathrow – Spotting at Myrtle Avenue’ and ‘Luton – Spotting Around the Airport’ performing weirdly well on the blog, the end of June saw me heading out on a two-day trip planned around doing some spotting and writing some more of that type of post. But as well as some AvGeeking, I’d made the most out of this trip, fitting in plenty of rail journeys, starting with this one from Peterborough to York with Grand Central.

Grand Central is one of Britain’s Open Access operators meaning its services are designed to fill gaps in franchised operators’ offerings and bring extra passengers to rail, without detracting from the franchised operators bottom line. Grand Central operates two routes, London King’s Cross to Bradford Interchange and London King’s Cross to Sunderland and until the start of 2024, the first stops on these services were Doncaster and York respectively. However, in late 2023 it was deemed there was sufficient demand from Peterborough that Grand Central could stop a couple of services in each direction there without impacting LNER. As such from the 4^th January 2024, one Bradford and one Sunderland service stop in each direction at the Cambridgeshire city.

Clearly whoever made the decision about demand was correct as when the tired class 180 pulled into Peterborough there were quite a few of us waiting to board what was already a relatively busy service. Grand Central’s 1^st Class is laid out in a 2-1 configuration with leather seats, and I ended up in a forward-facing seat around a table on the single side of the aisle, a couple down from my reserved seat which had been taken by someone else.

Unfortunately, Grand Central has stuck with the trend of most inter-city operators with limiting their 1^st Class offering to a hot drink and snacks as opposed to any significant food options. However, they have introduced at seat ordering, meaning that whilst you could just choose the complimentary offering, you can also order something more substantial from the café bar and pay the extra. I stuck with the basics and went for a Mocha, a Pain au Chocolat and a granola bar which was plenty for the short journey to York.

Given the vast majority of trains from Peterborough towards York stop at at least two of the intermediate stations, it was odd to go flying though all of Grantham, Newark Northgate, Retford and Doncaster at speed, although this did cut the journey time down to just 63 minutes compared to 91 minutes on the LNER stopper. Not long after departure from Peterborough we passed the Newark based class 47 ‘Thunderbird’ heading south as 0Z99, so I was thankful to be heading away from whatever problem it was heading to as 0Z99. ‘Thunderbirds’ are affectionately nicknamed locomotives that sit as standby at strategic points around the rail network, ready to respond to failed trains and clear the line to get things moving. There used to be a few on the East Coast Mainline (ECML), however there is now just one based at Newark Northgate, severely reducing the speed at which issues can be responded to.

As we headed north I was able to finish off the Aer Lingus BHX-DUB blog from our trip to Dublin back in March before sitting back and relaxing for the remainder of the journey. As we travelled between Doncaster and York over the Selby diversion, the UK’s first High Speed Line, I looked over to the left to see that Ferrybridge Power Station had now been entirely demolished. This had been a landmark on this section of the route as I’ve travelled over it over the past few years and its been interesting to see it gradually diminish. Whilst Ferrybridge no more, on the other side of the line Drax Power Station can still be seen steaming away strongly, powered by biomass rather than coal.

The northern end of the Selby diversion is at Colton Junction, a high-speed junction that allows trains in any direction to cross it at 125mph. Its here that the line from Leeds joins the ECML on approach to York and it was good to see that the electrification of that line as part of the TransPennine Route Upgrade was almost complete. Overtaking 66413 & 66502, two of Freightliner’s Class 66s heading from Leeds Midland Road to Tyne Yard, they then re-overtook us as we were held on the final approach to York owing to other delayed services blocking our platform. After waiting for a Northern service to depart, we pulled into platform 10 at 1026, four minutes late.

Whilst travelling from Peterborough to York is nothing remarkable for me, being able to do so on a Grand Central service is certainly a novelty. When comparing them to LNER on the same route, Grand Central’s seats are certainly comfier, however the catering options are lacking compared to LNER’s ‘Dish’ or ‘Dine’ menus. What I do like about Grand Central’s services calling at Peterborough is that they open up new parts of Yorkshire and County Durham to me with direct services. I’m sure I’ll be travelling with them plenty more in the future.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food                3*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      17/25 (read about my rating system here!)