Grand Central and Renaissance Trains are close to submitting applications to run new open access services.

Grand Central business development director Ian Yeowart told Transit that a new application to operate between London and Bradford on the East Coast Main Line would be presented to the Office of Rail Regulation in February. Meanwhile, Renaissance director John Nelson said he would submit an application to reintroduce direct services from Nottingham and Liverpool to Glasgow "within months".

Yeowart said he wanted to operate his Bradford services using available 125mph rolling stock, implying that he hopes to secure leases for Adelante vehicles, currently being returned by Great Western. He added that Grand Central had identified a fourth path for its London-Sunderland operation which he hoped to start using later this year once the current service has bedded down.

In addition to its Glasgow plans, Renaissance is actively looking at a number of possibilities to run Cross-London services which would provide the attraction of avoiding interchange at crowded London terminals. Nelson added that another opportunity could be running services to a potential new station serving Robin Hood Doncaster airport. "We'll have to see how air traffic grows," he told Transit.

He also said Renaissance's plans to run services from South Humberside and Lincoln to Stratford in East London had not been killed off by new direct London-Lincoln services in the new East Coast and East Midlands franchises. He pointed out that Renaisance's proposal would still bring new direct services to a significant number of Humber towns such as Grimsby, and that the proposal would tap into the huge development around Stratford.