Alliance Rail Holdings

Great North Western Railway

In August 2015, the ORR announced Alliance Rail's amended application to operate six trains per day from London Euston to Blackpool calling at Milton Keynes, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley, Crewe, Preston, Kirkham & Wesham and Poulton-le-Fylde had been successful. A 10-year access agreement was awarded with operations to commence in May 2018.^[5][6] These services were to have been operated by fellow Arriva subsidiary Grand Central.^[7] The application proposed using 125mph tilting Class 390 Pendolinos, however with Alliance unable to negotiate a derogation to operate the rolling stock, the access rights lapsed in June 2017.^[8][9]

Alliance applied for altered paths with former Virgin Trains East Coast and now current London North Eastern Railway InterCity 225 sets to commence operating from September 2019. As these will not able to tilt, their speed would be restricted to 110mph. Due to the lower speed, the revised service would only call at Milton Keynes, Nuneaton, Preston, Kirkham & Wesham and Poulton-le-Fylde.^[9][10]

In June 2018, the Office of Rail and Road approved the new application for a 7-year track access application for 5 direct services from Blackpool North to London Euston calling at: Poulton-le-Fylde, Kirkham and Wesham, Preston, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes Central from September 2019. ^[11][12] An option for a 6th service in the future is available.

Grand Southern Railway

In November 2016, Alliance began a consultation for a proposed London Waterloo to Southampton service. It was proposed to operate seven off-peak services from December 2017 calling at Wimbledon, Hook, Basingstoke, Winchester and Eastleigh, with two peak services proposed from December 2018. It was set to use Class 442s.^[13] Network Rail had identified available paths for Grand Southern to use.^[9] In March 2017, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) told Grand Southern to delay the application until the outcome of the South Western franchise was known. In March 2018, the ORR released an update confirming a delay on the application. The application was eventually rejected in August 2018.^[14]

The reason for the rejection was due to the fact that the Class 442 were no longer available. The proposal also only generated between £0.17 and £0.22 of new revenue and the ORR requires no less that £0.30 therefor failing the not primarily abstractive test.^[15]

Great North Eastern Railway

Great North Eastern Railway

GNER, resurrecting the name of the defunct Sea Containers subsidiary lodged an application to operate from London King's Cross to Cleethorpes, Bradford Foster Square, Ilkley and Edinburgh from 2018.^[16] These were rejected in May 2016.^[17]

It also proposed in 2009 to operate services from London King's Cross to Scarborough via the Yorkshire Coast Line, Skegness, Sheffield via Grantham, Grimsby and Middlesbrough, but these were rejected in 2010 by the ORR. It was also proposed in December 2013 that services would run services between Kings Cross and Skipton, but these were withdrawn in 2014 by the ORR.