RAIL firms like York's Grand Central and GNER must work together to expand capacity on Britain's flagship East Coast Main Line, according to a North Yorkshire MP.

Selby MP John Grogan, pictured, said the onus was on all train firms to put pressure on Network Rail to get more passenger services on the busy rail route.

Mr Grogan was welcoming the news that the Office of Rail Regulation had given the final go-ahead to Grand Central to operate high-speed passenger train services from Sunderland to London, calling at York. That decision means three extra direct services a day will run each way between the capital and York, but also means GNER's dreams of running extra services between Leeds and London have been put on hold.

Grand Central managing director Ian Yeowart welcomed the ORR's decision, but GNER branded it "staggering".

The Station Rise-based company had negotiated its extra services with the Government as part of a £1.3 billion franchise commitment.

Mr Grogan said: "I look forward to robust price competition between Grand Central and GNER in the future, which can only be good for passengers in York and North Yorkshire.

"I think that the next step is for all train operators in the region - GNER, First Group (who operate Hull Trains) and Grand Central (who still want to run services from Bradford and Halifax to London) - to join forces and put pressure on Network Rail to expand capacity on the East Coast Main Line. At present, only 35 per cent of the paths on the route allocated to freight trains are currently taken up, and if Network Rail got their act together and reallocated some of these paths to passenger services then there would be the prospect of extra capacity for all operators."

GNER spokesman John Gelson said: "One of the many reasons we were disappointed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) decision to reject GNER's plans for additional train services to Yorkshire centres on the issue of capacity constraints on the East Coast Main Line.

"The ORR said in January that it would have approved GNER's plans but for concerns about track capacity between Leeds and Doncaster.

"GNER then provided evidence showing that these could be solved by very minor timetable changes - only then for the ORR to move the goalposts in its final decision by raising new concerns about capacity between Doncaster and Peterborough.

"As Mr Grogan rightly says, many paths on the East Coast route are not currently taken up, but these are held under contract by other passenger and freight operators.

"A Route Utilisation Study for the line is awaited from Network Rail, which will deal with capacity and unused paths.

"But the decision to give Grand Central the go-ahead has pre-empted the outcome of that study."

Updated: 10:24 Tuesday, March 28, 2006