Overview

• The Office of Rail and Road granted Lumo permission to extend some London King’s Cross–Edinburgh trains to Glasgow and to add London–Newcastle services from December 2025.
• Hull Trains secured approval for an extra weekday and Saturday return service between London King’s Cross and Hull.
• Grand Central won the right to introduce a direct link between London and Seaham on the County Durham coast.
• Several other open-access bids were rejected over concerns about network capacity, potential performance impact and revenue diversion from state-owned services.
• Ministers have pressed the regulator to protect government rail income even as LNER readies a “transformational” late-2025 timetable with up to 37 daily London–Edinburgh services.