A TRAIN company could launch a legal challenge against Government plans to revamp services on the East Coast Main Line.

Independently-run Grand Central has warned that the changes could hamper its plans to expand by offering more routes from stations across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Last week, Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, announced timetables will be reorganised to cut journey times for the Governmentowned East Coast services between London and Edinburgh to less than four hours.

But the changes will mean that journeys between London and Sunderland, which are run by Grand Central, will take 24 minutes longer.

“This proposed new timetable would discriminate against Grand Central, its passengers, and the towns and cities that we serve,” a spokesman for the company said last night.

The commercial operator also runs services from Hartlepool, Eaglescliffe, Northallerton, Thirsk and York.

Under the Government’s proposals, more East Coast services could be introduced at York, which would deny rival Grand Central slots that could be used to open up extra connections from places such as Middlesbrough, Redcar and Harrogate.

The spokesman said the firm could launch a legal challenge over the proposals.

“We will strongly defend our rights to equal treatment in any new timetable and we will be working with the local communities we serve in North Yorkshire and along the Durham coast, so that their views can be heard by Network Rail, the Office of Rail Regulation and the Department for Transport.”

The Government stepped in to take over the East Coast Main Line from National Express last year after the company failed to make it financially viable. The service will stay in public ownership until a new private operator is found.

A Department for Transport spokesman last night defended proposals for a new timetable.

He said: “We have always made it clear that while open access operators have the opportunity to exploit available space on the network, new timetables will be designed to meet the overall needs of passengers, rather than any particular operator.”