Railways to our Core
At Grand Union we are passionate about Britain’s railways. We are committed to the traditional values of providing a high-quality customer service and a comfortable journey experience at a fair price.
Grand Union has been founded with the primary aim of providing a new customer-focused standard of train service, which challenges and changes the current passenger experience. New services, more trains and new stations will provide new employment opportunities while offering improved access and greater choice for passengers through limited competition with existing train operators. New journey opportunities will be created that in turn deliver wider economic benefits and value for money for rail users and taxpayers.
As an independent company, Grand Union’s previous application for a passenger track access agreement to operate on the Carmarthen to London route was approved by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in December 2022, while its application to operate on the Stirling to London Euston route was approved in March 2024. Those services will now be delivered by First Group under its successful Lumo brand.
Grand Union, under the ‘Alliance’ banner currently has two live applications to run a regular service between Cardiff and Edinburgh and to introduce a new service between Marchwood on the Waterside Line and London Waterloo.
All Aboard For a Relaxing Experience
We will provide the very best on-board experience – where we value every single customer and provide a good choice of catering and refreshments regardless of your ticket price.
Our comfortable trains will provide more space and leg-room for passengers compared to other train providers, with good space for passenger luggage.
All our journeys will have a full complement of safety-trained staff onboard, so passengers can be confident their service is as safe as possible.
Our People
Our people are railway people to the core. Steeped in the history and traditional values of the railways, our founders bring over 100 years of experience on British railways to this project. They have been at the cutting edge of change throughout their careers and are passionate about creating a service that reflects traditional railway values while meeting the demands of 21st century passengers.
Ian Yeowart
Managing Director
Ian has been in the forefront of delivering improved rail services for passengers during his time with British Rail, and within the privatised system by delivering a number of new rail services through ‘open access’.
Ian founded and developed Grand Central in 1999, which operates new and competitive rail services from Sunderland and along the East Coast through York to London King’s Cross, and from West Yorkshire through Doncaster to London King’s Cross. Ian also founded Alliance Rail Holdings in 2009, whose GNWR services were given permission in 2018 to operate from Blackpool to London Euston along the West Coast.
Ian now leads Grand Union Trains, which received approval for new train services between Carmarthen and London Paddington and Stirling and London Euston.
Grand Union is now developing plans for new services to link Wales and Scotland and also to re-introduce passenger rail services on the ‘Waterside Line’ for the first time since 1966.
David Prescott
Director of Marketing and Development
David’s 45 years’ of experience in the railway sector has given him a wide range of knowledge through operations, commercial, marketing and business management, planning, project development and government.
He has been in at the start of many of the fundamental changes to the railway including: BR Business Management – Freight and Regional Railways, British Rail privatisation, the first ScotRail franchise and the creation of Transport Scotland.
He was one of the key players in the development of Regional Railways in the 1980s and 90s, with the huge change in rolling stock and services, which laid the foundations for the current highly successful operations, such as TransPennine. With ScotRail and Transport Scotland he has been a major contributor to the renaissance of Scotland’s Railways, developing policy, and delivering new services, stations and routes.
Being part of Grand Union provides an opportunity to bring all the experience of a lifetime in railways to deliver class leading, top quality, innovative train services.
Our Partners
Grand Union is working closely with a number of partners to develop this proposed service.