IAN YEOWART is a man on a mission. The managing director of Grand Central Railways (GCR), based in York, is desperate to turn his dream of running new train services into a reality.

GCR, which says it can run trains without subsidy, plans eight trains a day to the capital and now, after months of lobbying, it will learn its fate.

An application has been under consideration by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), which could give its decision this month.

This includes four trains from Sunderland, Hartlepool, Eaglescliffe, Northallerton, Thirsk and York to London, and four from West Yorkshire.

However it has faced opposition, most notably from the much bigger and already well-established GNER, whose East Coast Main Line route to the capital it will have to use.

Mr Yeowart said: "In the North-East, we are offering a brand new market new trains which they have not had and which they are never likely to.

"GNER's franchise, on the other hand, delivers absolutely nothing for these areas. They get no new trains or services, which we can offer them."

GNER, which last March was awarded a ten-year franchise to operate services on the East Coast Main Line after agreeing to pay the Government £1.3bn in "premium" payments, opposes Grand Central's application because it believes there is not enough space on the network for both companies.

This view has been seemingly backed by Network Rail, which recently published a report that said that without infrastructure improvements, it would be difficult to put additional services on the East Coast Main Line.

GNER has also described GCR's suggested timetable as fanciful. Richard Allan, of GNER, said the two companies would not operate on a level playing field. He said: "Grand Central's business case is based on 'revenue raiding' from operators like us, whose franchises are let and regulated by the Government.

"It is what is known as an open access operator. They do not pay premiums to Government and nor do they have to pay fixed track access charges to Network Rail for use of the infrastructure.

"This results in an open access operator's cost base being considerably lower than a franchisee.

"If Grand Central had to pay the same fixed track access and premium costs as GNER, then they would have to pay around £30m annually to the Government, based on their proposed 16 daily trains."

GNER, which has the support of several other existing train operators in opposing GCR's application, says if GCR was given the go-ahead, it would lose ticket income, which would significantly affect its ability to meet the premiums it promised the Government.

Mr Allan said: "Grand Central would get a free ride and take money from our franchise - money which is used to reinvest in the railways.

"Grand Central will not have to pay a premium, it will keep all its revenue for its mystery backers."

Hitting back, Mr Yeowart said: "GNER have been tittle-tattling to everybody without having the supportive evidence in terms of what they are saying. They are just simply desperate to keep access to these routes for themselves."

Grand Central said it has already invested £1.5m in its plans. However, Mr Yeowart declined to divulge where that investment has come from on the grounds of commercial sensitivity.

It has already been knocked back by rail regulator Tom Winsor for a proposal to run daily services from Newcastle to Manchester.

Mr Winsor said that while the proposed services would benefit passengers, most of the route they would serve already had high-frequency, high-speed services using trains of a comparable quality.

He also expressed doubts about the company's projected level of income and said there was a lack of evidence underlying this.

However, GCR, which was formed in the mid-1990s, said it has learnt from its mistakes and now has a "rock-solid" business case for its new services.

It has been backed in its efforts by 64 MPs, who signed an Early Day Motion in favour of its planned services.

Support has also come from, among others, passenger watchdog group the Rail Passengers' Council, the Association of North-East Councils and development agency One North-East.

GCR said it would create 48 jobs in the North-East and 44 in West Yorkshire.

It has pledged a simple, affordable pricing structure and said it would refund half of any fare should a seat not be available on a train.

GCR plans to lease new five-coach Class 222 Meridian 125mph trains to run on the network from December.

However, with Mr Yeowart admitting that it could be at least 15 months from the point when permission is granted to secure the trains and rolling stock it needs, it seems to make its proposed start date unlikely.

He said: "December is achievable, but a challenge. It is the physical build time with the trains that is the issue.

"But with the money that has been spent and the time we have taken, if everybody has to wait three more months for trains -they have been waiting years for in some instances -they will live with that.

"We first made our application in February 2005 and the decision-making process is expected to take 18 weeks, at which point we could procure rolling stock.

"However, there has been a serious delay in this decision-making process, for which we have not been responsible for."

He said GCR has proved to the former Strategic Rail Authority that it would not take income from other operators.

He said: "We have had to make sure all our figures are right for sustaining the business in the longer term.

"Consultants have been out there on our behalf with several thousand pounds of our money and came up with a view on whether the business would survive, and the work that they have done indicates it will."

Mr Yeowart rejects suggestions from GNER that it could pull out of its service at any time should it find things going badly.

He said: "There is no way that the banks will help us procure £40m of rolling stock if they think we are going to walk away.

"We will have long-term commitments, don't worry about that.

"If we walk away, it is our money lost. We cannot afford to get it wrong."