THE boss of York-based train operator Grand Central has spoken of his "extreme disappointment" after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) rejected an application to run additional services between Doncaster, Wakefield and London.

Managing director Richard McClean has written to the ORR about the decision, which he said would have allowed the firm to fill in gaps in the services it provided to passengers.

He said that if the application had been successful, it would also have provided new direct journey options between Peterborough and the North East/Yorkshire.

He said that as part of its long term growth strategy, Grand Central had requested additional track access rights to allow it to operate new early and late services. The ORR had rejected the application on the grounds it did not reach the required ratio on its ‘Not Primarily Abstractive’ test, which assessed the balance of new revenue generated by the services against existing revenue transferred from other operators.

Mr McClean said: “As part of our application, we presented a clear business case which reflected the high level of market growth experienced when we previously expanded our operations, meaning the application reached the required ratio. However, the ORR felt this did not meet their required criteria on this occasion.

“We are extremely disappointed that the ORR has rejected our application to expand our operations and grow existing markets, which would have allowed us ultimately to boost our services for the benefit of existing and new passengers.”