Last updated at 16:42, Wednesday, 14 October 2009

BARROW could get its first direct trains to London for 20 years if a plan by a rail entrepreneur gets the green light.

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An independent company headed by a rail industry veteran wants to run a service which would take as little as three hours from Barrow.

Current services take around three hours and 45 minutes.

Yorkshire-based Ian Yeowart of Alliance Rail Holdings Limited says Chinese-made Polaris express trains could be running services to London from towns along the Cumbrian coast including Workington, Whitehaven and Barrow from 2013, if his application to the Office of the Rail Regulation is approved.

It would take between three hours and three hours 15 minutes from Barrow and would be aimed at the business and tourism markets, said Mr Yeowart.

Trains would start and finish at Carlisle but use the coastal route through Cumbria.

The Polaris trains are hybrids which can run on either overhead electric power or use diesel power.

The application submitted last month could take the regulator 12 to 18 months to decide.

It would see one of Mr Yeowart’s subsidiaries, Great North Western Trains, run up to four services a day between Carlisle and Euston via Workington, Whitehaven and Barrow.

Once on the West Coast Main Line, trains would run at high speed on the route to Euston.

Mr Yeowart was previously founder and managing director of Grand Central trains which introduced a train service between Sunderland and London.

He also fought for and established a service from Bradford Interchange to London which starts next May.

He used ‘open access’ rules that allow some competition with main train service operators.

He is also planning new services in the North East.

He said research done so far suggested the Barrow service could be economic taken together with other stops along the line further south.

Trains would initially have two power cars and six coaches but could be lengthened.

He believes Cumbria could yield the same results as Sunderland, even though there is not a centre as big as Sunderland. He said: “With a limited number of services, we could probably make this work.

“We are pretty confident we can deliver a service that will have reciprocal benefits.

“While Virgin Trains currently operates a high frequency service on the WCML route, there are many large and important locations that are poorly served or not served at all. “Open access is the opportunity for those communities to see their links restored and at the same time provide some much needed consumer choice.”

He said currently most business people travelling by rail from West Cumbria or Furness first drive to the West Coast Main Line to get a train.

Alan Johnstone, of the Furness Line Action Group, said he welcomed any move to bring direct London trains to Barrow and the West Coast of Cumbria. He said plans for new nuclear power stations and the Energy Coast might influence the operators.

But he could foresee problems because of the slowness of the coastal line and because existing operators like TransPennine Express and Northern Rail, would stand to lose business.

Mr Yeowart’s grandfather was from Maryport and his parents live in Silloth.

He says Yeowart is a Cumbrian name.

The 55-year-old career railway man started as a booking clerk. He was an area manager in Yorkshire for British Rail before the privatisation of the railways.

Mr Yeowart said: “The service in Sunderland has gone down very well.

“I am quite tenacious.

“These things take time historically but we have the stamina to see this through.”

Katie Read, Cumbria Tourism’s Partnership director for the West Coast, said: “The plans are certainly a few years down the line, but we would wholeheartedly welcome any developments to improve the connectivity into Cumbria’s West Coast.

“Barrow and the Western Lakes are often perceived to be isolated parts of the county and these plans, together with the proposals for Carlisle Airport, would connect us with major hubs throughout the country, making the West Coast much more competitive as both a leisure and a business destination in its own right.

“Currently, the vast majority of visitors to Cumbria arrive and travel around by car, therefore any improvements to public transport services to encourage more sustainable travel should also be supported.”

• Barrow had direct London services until 1983, and a sleeper service was revived in one direction only – to London – between 1987 and 1990

First published at 13:10, Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk