It hasn’t been a great year for open access operators.
Wrexham & Shropshire went the way of the dodo, Grand Central’s plausible sounding proposals for direct London services from the Blackpool area have been turned down, and Alliance was all but insulted by the ORR for the quality of its bids.
The regulator has “kept the door open”, as it puts it, for more West Coast bidders – but the mood music is hardly positive right now.
