The UK's Best Train Operator? | The history of Grand Central

Hello and welcome to today's video where I will look at one of the UKs oldest Open Access Operators - Grand Central. An open access operator is not bound by franchise restrictions and is ran entirely at the risk of the parent company for profit, with Grand Central branding itself as a low cost alternative to LNER for London services from the NE of England. Grand Central have been operating since December 2007 and have seen many developments, expansions, proposed routes and rolling stock changes since beginning operations. Today, we’ll look at the history of Grand Central & determine whether it has been a successful Open Access Operator.

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Any content featured in this video has been accredited to the correct author, where possible, with permission. However, I may sometimes mistakenly miscredit content (or label it as 'unknown' if I can't find the author), so please let me know if I have got credits wrong for authors of content featured in this video.

A huge thanks to those who allowed me to use their footage for todays video;
SimOnTrains - https://www.youtube.com/@Sim0nTrains
TFL Three (Daniel & Hugh) - https://www.youtube.com/@thetflthree
KTV Videos - https://www.youtube.com/@KTVTransport
Public Transport 4U - https://www.youtube.com/@PublicTransport4U
Now Approaching - https://www.youtube.com/@nowapproachingyt
Mark Appleby - https://www.youtube.com/@markappleby3282
spompeytransportvideo - https://www.youtube.com/@spompey

Any views mentioned in this video are of my opinion and my opinion only. I am impartial and will never be swayed by a company to not tell the truth, however will sometimes speak from my own viewpoint. I always attempt to use sources that are from sites that I personally trust; BBC, Sky News etc. and I will always attempt to portray the whole picture of the subject in my videos. If you feel I haven't, or if I've mistakenly missed something - do let me know in the comments, on my Discord or my Twitter/Instagram & I'll be sure to look into it! Thanks for watching!

References (including accredited sources):
Wikipedia
Angel Trains
Arrival Website
BBC News
Blog Preston
Business Travel News
DfT website
EN For Business
Evening Courier
Grand Central website
Grismby Telegraph
Ian Visits
Insider media
ITV News
Journalive
Lancashire Telegraph
Modern Railways
Network Rail
ORR website
Rail Advent
Rail Business UK
RAIL Magazine
Railway Magazine
Railnews
Railway-News
Rail Technology Magazine
Scunthorpe Telegraph
Sunderland Echo
The Independent
The Railway Centre
The Telegraph
This Is Lincolnshire
Transport Focus
TransportXtra
York Press
Yorkshire Live
Yorkshire Post

Thumbnail image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/On_the_day_Arriva_bought_Grand_Central%2C_a_Class_180_races_through_Hitchin_-_panoramio.jpg, Roger Carvell, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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