Grand Central Discussion

[Metroland]

Paul, I don't mean to be rude, but have you anything positive to say about anything? Every single one of your posts seems to be incredibly negative about GC and the railway in general.

I find it very puzzling you want to spend any time on such a forum. I really don't want to clash with you all the time, but I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I find your straw man arguments very irritating and unpleasant at times and almost designed to provoke an argument. You seem intent on peddling a lot of negative rubbish.

We all welcome reasoned debate, but some of the things are just ardent codswallop and are akin to me going onto an aviation forum and harping on about Terminal 5 and whether BA will be bust any time soon. It doesn't go down very well.

GC is a small company and some of their staff post here, how would you feel about someone running your work down for the sake of it? You don't have to believe GC is wonderful, but I think you've made your point, you are now just being offensive IMHO.

 

[yorkie]

Realistically Yorkie the Taxis are far less expensive than running the train.
You do have to wonder just how many passengers GC are attracting North of York when the replacement transport doesnt even seem to warrant a road coach!

Quite a lot actually! but most of them appear to be on inter-available tickets, which is only to be expected given the pricing structure and infrequency of GC trains. If this trend continues, GC will be doing a favour to TPE and NT by growing the market. I suspect sales of York-Hartlepool 'route direct' tickets are up by a large percentage!

Many people who would have got GC would have got alternative trains, but I do wonder what happened at Eaglescliffe (which is a shack with no announcements, no screens, and despite the short distance it's not easy to get to Yarm from there).

 

[Metroland]

Eaglescliffe is a disgrace, but then so is much of the area in general. I'm really hoping the GC service will boost not just the other train services but the local economy in general, it's connectivity has been poor for many years.

 

[BOSCH]

1820 KGX-SUN - cancelled.

It ran from york back to s/land cos I worked it !!

 

[andylloyd]

Just seen an unidentified GC set roll over the King Edward bridge(newcastle) northbound at about 15.40.

Was this an ECS move or is it one of the sick sets?

Cheers

Andy

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

Despite a seriously quick turnround at KX this morning (ie, time for Driver to get from one end to the other!) we got hammered with a delay at Colton Jcn due to a broken fishplate on a point, which the S&C boys were fixing. The set you saw will have been R! on its way to Heaton for fuel before heading back out to form the 1730 this evening.

 

[martyn29]

keep up the good work GC! one day I will bash ya!

 

[Jordy]

I'll be out tomorrow providing everything runs! First on 1N25 between York and Sunderland, then will probably do 1A62 back - may bail somewhere random tho

 

[adambro]

GC website is down as it appears was noted yesterday.

 

[BOSCH]

GC website is down as it appears was noted yesterday.

was working this afternoon no problem !

 

[djw1981]

Eaglescliffe is a disgrace, but then so is much of the area in general. I'm really hoping the GC service will boost not just the other train services but the local economy in general, it's connectivity has been poor for many years.

It is like the farce that is tees-side airport (rail) or Durham Tees Valley Airport (plane). It is best served by a bus to Darlington, which has better mainline connections. Hopefully the tees valley tram thing will help with this, providing good links into rail services.

 

[Jordy]

http://www.grandcentralrail.co.uk/ does not work, http://www.grandcentralrail.com/ does!

 

[djw1981]

Hmmm and which is top of the google search? .co.uk with .com not even on p1.....
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Even then, the front page service alterations are almost 10 days out of date - hardly instilling confidence that the site is regularly updated.

 

[Danny Dire]

Guys, things are about to step up a gear at GC and it's all good
Can't reveal the plans on here as it would break the confidentiallity clause in the employee contract, but suffice to say, you will all be pleasantly surprised in the very near future.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

With regards to the website... If you guys stopped trying to look at it every 30seconds it might not go down so much

GC own both the .co.uk and .com addresses, and the .co.uk *should* redirect automatically to the .com ... I know it did a while back when I tried it, having spotted it on the coach sides:roll:

 

[yorkie]

...but suffice to say, you will all be pleasantly surprised in the very near future.

ooh, no rattling underfloor DMUs discarded from FGW then?

 

[me123]

Wish you hadn't said anything, Danny, because I will now be checking this thread and the website incesently looking for the news

(BTW the sad part is that I am completely serious!)

I think they got permission for Bradford-London personally.

 

[djw1981]

I guess it depends what HT get. they have applications (http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/s18-ECML-Hull_Trains.pdf) in for more Hull-London trains (up to 9 daily); an extra return on a sunday; Harrogate-London & Cleethorpes to London (via Lincoln) (the latter 2 as 'Great North Services Group).

They list the final 2 as being cl180 operated, and the Hull services as 22x/180 operated.

This will have a) an affect on the paths available on ECML; b) an effect on rolling stock available, unless GC plan to go down the Mk2 & cl67 route; c) an effect on the Renaissance trains pitch for a path from Humber Coast & City into stratford domestic.

Soon Lincoln could easily have 4 operators to London (NXEC, EMT, HT, Renaissance).

 

[me123]

Soon Lincoln could easily have 4 operators to London (NXEC, EMT, HT, Renaissance).

Pretty amazing, given that they have no current links to the capital!

All the services you've listed are fantastic IMHO. Hull services, from what I've heard, are overcrowded so 9 a day would be superb for a city that is not.

The best thing about the Harrogate route IMO is the routeing via York. The additional stations may only get 4tpd, but even such a rudicmentary service can be beneficial to small communities.

I've always thought, between them, HT and GC would be doing great things up the East Coast and it looks like that is happening. Shame it's going to be using 180s, though

 

[djw1981]

Also, the 180's are only 5 cars , which I can see being full within 4 years, which is a problem since the HST cascade due to IEP is not until 2014.

 

[devon_metro]

ooh, no rattling underfloor DMUs discarded from FGW then?

Better than any Voyager related "thing"

 

[Jordy]

An enjoyable and successful trip on GC for me today

 

[me123]

What about platforming at KX? You've already got NXEC services, with some more when the Lincoln services start. The platforming there is already pretty congested, especially at the peaks, and I would imagine that the ICE program will only introduce longer trains. How will they cope with the capacity for all these extra ECML services?

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

That is a good question!! KX is already pretty busy, and we do on occasion have to wait for a platform, even when we are running to time! This of course makes us late!

 

[yorkie]

What about platforming at KX? You've already got NXEC services, with some more when the Lincoln services start. The platforming there is already pretty congested, especially at the peaks, and I would imagine that the ICE program will only introduce longer trains. How will they cope with the capacity for all these extra ECML services?

Platform Y

 

[theblackwatch]

Better than any Voyager related "thing"

I agree on that - I've done a few 180s and found that, from a comfort point of view, they are streets ahead of the Voyagers. A pity the same can't be said about their reliability though!

It looks like I may get plenty of chance to have a few more of them in the future....

 

[me123]

Platform Y

Ahh, I forgot! But still, one extra platform might make a difference off-peak but at the peak times, one platform can't make too much of a difference :? Well, sometimes even the smallest thing can make a huge impact.

 

[class 313]

Isn't Kings X getting a new platform?

 

[Donny Dave]

Yes it is. It's somehow going to be squeezed in next to P1, but this means the end of the loco sidings.

 

[djw1981]

Ahh, I forgot! But still, one extra platform might make a difference off-peak but at the peak times, one platform can't make too much of a difference :? Well, sometimes even the smallest thing can make a huge impact.

The HT services spread looks like almost 1 per hr and I think that is all the paths that were available, so one platform could make the difference, as a 40 min turnaround is what they applied for.