Grand Central Railway Company finally launched its open-access service between Sunderland and London King's Cross on December 18, when a single return trip was worked by its only operational IC125 set, reports Tony Miles. Plans to operate a temporary timetable with an 06.46 departure from Sunderland and the 16.50 from King's Cross supplemented by a return trip to York were shortlived when the sole HST failed and all services were cancelled on December 20 and 21. Engineering work on the East Coast Main Line over the Christmas period meant that there were no services on December 23 and 24. Services re-started on December 27 with the 12.30 train from Sunderland to London. Grand Central now expects to start a full service of three trains per day in each direction in the second half of January, although the necessary fleet of three IC125s was still not available at the start of the year.
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