Kryten2340
Member
Don't think East Coast would mind, but it would be Northern who would complain. The real problem is that it is down to how the revenue is allocated to tickets. For example, GC can run via Darlington when there are problems on the Durham Coast line, but they can only pick up people who would have joined the service at Sunderland/Hartlepool anyway. They wouldn't be allowed to pick up passengers who had a ticket say from Darlington to York (even though GC would stop at York). If they did allow a person to travel from Darlington to York, they would not receive any money.
The situation between Newcastle and Sunderland is more complicated due to the Metro, and the interavailability of both Metro and national rail tickets between Newcastle and Sunderland - from what I understand and have read, Nexus gives a certain proportion of the revenue on the Newcastle - Sunderland line to Northern. So, if no Metros are running, in theory Northern could ask for all the revenue between Newcastle and Sunderland on Thursday.
Sill though it would relieve a massive headache for Northern in terms of passenger numbers if they could come to some agreement.