Motivations of expanded open access?

[JonathanH]

I suppose one solution for Grand Central could be to operate all services as double sets between London and Doncaster, where they split/join for services to/from Sunderland and Bradford. This would mean rewriting their timetables and adding a Doncaster stop to Sunderland services though.

Is it a lesser evil to block up Doncaster station for sufficient time to split services, or for there to be five coach trains out of Kings Cross? LNER Lincoln services have to be five coach due to constraints there. There is double platforming of some services at King's Cross.

 

[Zomboid]

Splits can be done pretty smartly, but joining services from various destinations is more of a risk.
That said, is it not intended that the GC Cleethorpes service will split/join from/to a Bradford service at Doncaster? They won't be able to run triple sets!

 

[Brubulus]

Is it a lesser evil to block up Doncaster station for sufficient time to split services, or for there to be five coach trains out of Kings Cross? LNER Lincoln services have to be five coach due to constraints there. There is double platforming of some services at King's Cross.

There could be split/joins at Newark if LNER was truly commited to the "efficient" use of track capacity.
Obviously there's a balance to be had regarding this sort of thing, but the general imperative should be against short trains using valuable mainline paths, especially when lengthening would not require massive infrastructure changes.

Splits can be done pretty smartly, but joining services from various destinations is more of a risk.
That said, is it not intended that the GC Cleethorpes service will split/join from/to a Bradford service at Doncaster? They won't be able to run triple sets!

These sort of applications, which don't require new paths to London, are a key way to make sure that OA provides sufficient capacity relative to it's path use. Eg if first want to run trains to Sheffield, it can be done as a split of HT services.