Recent content by GrandCentral

I'm a little bit worried that this project has been rushed out without any plan. Only a few weeks ago the mayor was announcing a few million for a business case/assessment. Now we're hearing it's going ahead. Surely the background work has not been done and I really feel like we're going to see...

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/politics/council/sunderland-council-unites-in-call-to-protect-direct-london-trains-and-wants-lner-to-revive-axed-service-4959563 A Labour Council expressing concerns around the future of Open Access, though the motion was launched by a Conservative Councillor

https://x.com/KiMcGuinness/status/1854939152808083930 Have TPE ordered some new trains? I hadn't heard about this.

It seems as if Labour are happy for OAOs to exist but the big test will be if they grant any new routes to OAOs. Track access will also be interesting as I would assume that GB Rail assets will get priority when disruption occurs etc. It could be very very difficult for OAOs to compete.

The new North East Mayor, Kim McGuiness has provided £8.6 million to fund a business case to reopen the Leamside Line. I was wondering if people could give me an idea if this is good value for money and does anyone have any comparable business cases? £8.6 million seems expensive and from what I...

£8.6 million to put together a business case seems very steep. Does anyone have any more background on this?

A purely political plan unfortunately that will blow up in their faces when fares don’t fall and investment suffers. What is the future of Open Access operators under this plan?

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/councillor-slams-grand-central-after-sunderland-rail-passengers-left-stranded-4578465 Grand Central have been slammed by a local councillor and their response is weak as hell! Is anyone else feeling like GC will see things through to 2026 and then just shut...

Toilets still closed at Sunderland, they've basically been closed since it opened. Really not good enough and the place still looks like an empty warehouse.

It really is a bit of a let down. Much better than what it replaced, there's no doubt about that but it is bare and quite frankly depressing. I also think it will age terribly and look as bad as the old one did in about 10 or 20 years. Any news on plans to reopen the old platforms?

The new Sunderland Station south building opened yesterday and the feedback has been pretty negative from local people. What do you think? I do think that it's a bit of a let down, particularly compared to the artist impressions. No doubt it's an improvement on what it replaced but at the...

Great to see that its in relatively good shape. They have talked about turning the station back into a "4 track" station but with the widening of the middle I'm not sure how possible that will be. Possibly a 3 track station using this redundant platform and I did see something about the...

I'm liking the look of the refurbishment. The article talks about creating a '4 track, 4 platform station'. Having spoken to the Council this is very much an asipiration rather than a concrete plan and would probably only happen if the Leamside Line reopened I'm told. The article seems to...

I think that this plan is very short sighted and being put in place to please the public for short term gains rather than any real logistical advantages. The public have been increasingly vocal about "re-nationalising" the railways. The usual arguments include that they want to cut ticket...

I saw an article this morning suggesting that Sunderland Station is going to be improved. This includes a full remodelling of the South end and a new car park being added. These two things are very much needed. More interestingly though they have mentioned turning it back into a 4 platform...