Grand Central Discussion

[37402]

Well, everyone should start loving Cotswold again now as they've just purchased everyone's favourite duff, 47145.

 

[37412]

Well, everyone should start loving Cotswold again now as they've just purchased everyone's favourite duff, 47145.

Has the date of it's movement to Stockton been announced yet? :roll:

 

[Mintona]

They get £25000 for 47309, and spend £30000 on 47145. Except it would have cost many thousands more pounds to get 47309 running properly than 47145. So you can see their point...

 

[mealybar]

<split needed />

Anyone give me a heads up on the new ticket pricing, the annoncement seems all fingers and thumbs to me! Where are railcards valid? - doesn't seem to change anything on the web ticketing. Also whats a carnet?!

As an aside I've just been reading about the 4th service again, is there any news on it?

 

[yorkie]

GC fares to get fairer...

see http://www.grandcentralrail.com/news.html

From May 18th 2008 Grand Central will introduce a new simple fares structure made up of a 'Peak' and 'Off Peak' fare. The peak fare will only apply if you travel to or from London on the 0641 Sunderland - London Kings or the 1650 London Kings Cross - Sunderland...

Main points:

• Anytime tickets replace the flawed supplement system.
• Off peak tickets are cheaper than before and allow railcard discounts

This puts them in a position where they are ready for the new ticket conditions in September 2008. It makes good sense to do it now, and put an end to the confusion over railcards, supplements etc.

Interestingly, this is exactly what I thought they should do, I wonder if they read this forum

I feel a lot more positive about their ticket policy now.

The only other suggestion may be to introduce Super Off peak tickets to fill the trains that are dead, such as 1730 SUN-KGX, or go with AP tickets to fill them. But, saying that, I think it's the right decision not to do this yet, because of the current problems. Once the service is running reliably, then it makes sense to fill those trains.

 

[paul1609]

The railway system we have now is so obscenely wasteful, bureaucratic, and illogical that nothing really surprises me any more.

BTW, Liam, I would not suggest that GC have not paid the bill. Do you have proof? I am not confirming or denying if they have paid the bill or not, but it could be considered libel to suggest they haven't. And wouldn't it be Sovereign trains who'd get the bill anyway?

Its not libel for Liam to report that it is in the public domain (on uk.railway) that there were payment problems with the refurbishment of the power cars. I think this was the time Fraser Eagle sold out of the company.
It is also fact that Northern Rail won an ORR order on the credit facilities it offered Grand Central because of the companies poor credit rating.

 

[yorkie]

<p>paul - saying they did not pay the bill isn't the same as saying there were (allegedly) payment problems.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I think we'd know by now if they (Sovereign) had never paid...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>and the onus is on the person making the claim to prove it. 'someone said there were payment problems on uk.r' doesn't count <a href="http://www.railforums.co.uk/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg" /></p>

 

[Metroland]

It is also fact that Northern Rail won an ORR order on the credit facilities it offered Grand Central because of the companies poor credit rating.

That doesn't mean someone doesn't pay their bills. It may mean they didn't have an AAA credit rating or something approaching that. Only large, very solvent, corporations have that.

 

[paul1609]

That doesn't mean someone doesn't pay their bills. It may mean they didn't have an AAA credit rating or something approaching that. Only large, very solvent, corporations have that.

I think you'll find that the credit company N2check recomended that Northern didnt allow Grand Central "any credit at all" thats not quite in the same league as an AAA rating.

The whole report is here if you dont believe me;http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/dep-Heaton_declet_red.pdf

 

[Metroland]

Well fair enough. There is, however, currently an economic period of virtually no lending, indeed, some of the largest and most successful estate agents are in a financial crisis and banks are not lending to each other or companies with AAA ratings. That's fairly well documented.

With rising food and fuel costs, the Daily Telegraph has recently reported that the average family has just £50 to spend per week on non essentials. Clearly we are in a tight economic period.

When making decisions about financial risk, the overall financial picture would be looked at, including a companies liabilities and assets set against the backdrop of the above.

Currently Grand central has few assets, relatively speaking, of any worth. Coupled with the credit crunch, it's not surprising that a decision to rule out credit facilities was taken. This doesn't however mean the company is not a going concern.

Quite clearly Grand Central has had a number of very unfortunate problems with stock reliability, so I'm not going to claim there are no black swans on the horizon with GC's logo on the side. However, I do think some of the comments are pure speculation. and it is very foolish to make claims without knowing the full facts.

 

[devon_metro]

More farces today: http://therailwaycentre.com/NewSite POD 2008/POD16_05_08.jpg

 

[matt]

More farces today: http://therailwaycentre.com/NewSite POD 2008/POD16_05_08.jpg

That photo was from Thursday

 

[devon_metro]

Thursday then!

 

[robertclark125]

Grand Centrals emergency timetable does make interesting reading, but also raises a few questions.

1 - For trains that start at York, it says that passengers from Sunderland and Hartlepool wil be accompanied by GC staff onto NAtional Express services. But, it doesn't say how they're supposed to get there. So, how do they reach those servicesand who foots the bill?

2 - For trains that are cancelled, staff will meet passengers at Kings Cross. However, will people holding GC tickets get a seat on a Nat Ex train? GC operates a seated only policy, Nat Ex doesnt.

3 - Why will people from Thirsk and Eaglescliffe have to use a taxi? Why not a proper minibus?

4 - When then service first started, why was there no contingency plan set up? Why did it take until now for one to be set up?

5 - How much is teh hiring of the loco hauled sets going to cost Grand central?

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

1) GC/GCsistercompany foots the bill for the tickets for travel on NXEC/NT/TPE/XC (not sure, could just be GC.)
2) Nope, same as if you had a seat res on the 1000, but chose instead to travel on the 1030 (open ticket, not AP), your seat res wont be valid on the later(or even earlier) train.
3) Taxi probably quicker and cheaper... The Coach I was sent with yesterday not only turned up late, but then developed a mechanincal problem requiring a detour to the depot to change coach...
4) Because everyone knew we were on Contingent... We are supposed to be running the full service, and have advertised that fact, so we are obliged to provide the alternative(s)
5) no idea, we dont get told that!

yes, the 37s hauling the set back to Heaton was Thursday morning/early afternoon. I had been working the 0646 until the problem...

 

[mealybar]

The website (and other ticket sites) dont seem to take into account the YP railcard, just give the flat off peak fare (£35 LKX-HPL). Is this a bug or am I understanding the railcard discount wrongly?

 

[djw1981]

Do GC offer a YP discount?

 

[Max]

They do, it's an error with 'thetrainline' :roll:

 

[eezypeazy]

Apologies for being off-topic, but I was just wondering... is this the longest thread ever?

Regards

eezypeazy

 

[gingerheid]

I hope things get sorted out for GC soon, it would be tragic to see them get this far against all the odds and then not get past this.

 

[yorkie]

They do, it's an error with 'thetrainline' :roll:

Knowing thetrainline it could take them a year to fix that. Several of us asked them to fix the Peterborough-York CDR but they just sent automated replies and ignored the error. A truly awful company, but I think GC have no alternative but to go with them (the only alternative is NXEC!)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The website (and other ticket sites) dont seem to take into account the YP railcard, just give the flat off peak fare (£35 LKX-HPL). Is this a bug or am I understanding the railcard discount wrongly?

Dunno where LKX is, sounds like an airport code

You may find this useful: http://gimel.esc.cam.ac.uk/enrich/station_codes.html

the one that it is often misquoted is BNS (Barnes) for BHM (Birmingham New St).

Knowing the correct 3 letter codes is very useful when you're using LDB on a mobile!

 

[me123]

Don't worry, I used both until recently It's a very easy mistake.

 

[mealybar]

Slap my wrists Personally I think LKX is better than KGX anyhow, how'm I supposed to know thats in London

Back to the ticket; assuming the GC announcement is right, an off peak ticket with a 16-25 railcard would be £23.33? If it is then thats bargains to me Come on GC get the 11:27 running to Sunderland again

Last I read on the power cars was 84 caught fire, but then was in use again pretty quickly, 123 was running (or at least being dragged) when 84 caught fire but then went off the rake, as 65 came back from Crewe and was back in service with 84. Any time frame for the two at brush? And which one am I missing, I've only counted 5 here

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

it was 123 which decided to toast itself!
84 and 65 are running around now (65 back from Crewe in time!), there are two at heaton (123 and 80), and two at brush... giving 6!

 

[djw1981]

So with 4 can you not run the full timetable on 5 days and do the exams on the other 2?

 

[1D53]

I imagine the Heaton two must be broken as they've run full service on four powercars before.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[theblackwatch]

There's a piece on GC in RMOL which may be of interest to some, see http://91.186.0.3/~keepingt/railmanager/146/RMOL146_19MAY2008.pdf. it states, among other things, that 43067 is likely to be out of service form a month.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

Yes we can run the full service with only 4 power cars... but it does cause a few headaches should one go pop!! Give it a couple of months and we will look back on all this in wonder! (it's great training!)

 

[Donny Dave]

I notice from that article in RMOL that GC are in talks with DML over "warranty items". Now, why would that be happening ????

The only reason that is happening is because DML dodn't do a good enough job ....

 

[westcoaster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7409823.stm

link to a bbc about reduced services being in place.