Posted 5th February 2015 | 2 Comments

First Hull Trains launches East Riding service

FIRST HULL TRAINS has launched a new service between London and Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Clearance for the open access operator to run a return journey each day was needed from the Office of Rail Regulation.

First Hull Trains managing director Will Dunnett said: "We’ve been working closely with the Office of Rail Regulator over several months to introduce the new service, which we know the people of East Riding and Beverley have wanted for a long time. We know that our passengers love Hull Trains and our aim is to ensure that in 2015, the East Riding is connected to the capital via a direct service, as never before."

The first Hull Trains services ran 15 years ago. Will Dunnett added: "Before the arrival of First Hull Trains, passengers in Hull had to change services if they wanted to travel to the capital. The convenience of a direct service cannot be underestimated and vastly improves the journey by taking away the worry of needing to rely on connecting services.”

The morning train leaves Beverley at 06.02, calling at Hull, Brough, Howden, Doncaster, Retford and Grantham, and arriving at London King's Cross at 09.16. The return journey follows the same route in reverse, leaving London at 18.50 and reaching Beverley at 21.46.

East Riding Council leader Stephen Parnaby said: “The direct service is a major coup for Beverley and the wider East Riding and will hopefully be a popular investment, supporting local tourism and creating opportunities for future business success.”

Reader Comments:

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  • david c smith, milton keynes

    It seems this just illustrates the flawedness of the current structure. Heving franchireer and open-access TOC's in competition creates such anomallies, as they each have different regulatory and financial regimes.

    I think the answer is simply to have general open-access for all routes where effective competition is faesible instead of franchising , whilst operations ( eg commuter ) with captive markets could be managed by local directly elected local boerds.8

  • MikeB, Liverpool

    Excellent news that the Rail Regulator has granted clearance for another service by open access operator First Hull Trains. However, an application from another open access operator - Great North Western Railway - for new services from Blackpool to Euston and Huddersfield to Euston has been rejected in order to " protect the revenues of Virgin Trains". One rule for the ECML and another for the WCML it seems!