The service has been dogged by problems since it went on track in December, 12 months behind schedule.



The latest hiccup has left passengers even more frustrated.
One traveller said buying a Grand Central train ticket is like "playing the lottery".

Just one train will run to the capital until further notice.

Grand Central's early morning 7.10am train will leave Sunderland as normal. But the 12.54pm and 5.56pm trains have been temporarily scrapped until major repair work is carried out on four of its six power cars.

On Wednesday a train broke down outside York, causing all journeys in each direction to be cancelled for the day while today's early morning service was also reportedly running late.

The return journey from Kings Cross will see only the 4.50pm from London reach the town with the 8.04am not running and the 11.27am train stopping in York.

Owners of pre-booked tickets for the cancelled and shortened journeys are being accompanied by Grand Central staff on rival operator National Express's trains.

Bosses are hopeful that a temporary shuttle service from Hartlepool to York will be running in the next few days.

Tom Clift, managing director of the company, said: "The train broke down in York and could go no further south. We sorted out the passengers who were on the way down and issued them with appropriate tickets on other services so they could continue their journey.

"There is a temporary new timetable in the meantime and we hope to have an improved timetable up and running soon."

One commuter, who did not want to be named, but who often uses the service, said: "I will still use the service but sometimes I feel messed about and I hope they can get it right."

Hartlepool man Greame Head, member of the Coastliners rail users group, said the problems are due to the firm using refurbished stock and not new trains.

He added: "Unfortunately it is going back to what they had before which wasn't a very good service.

"I think passengers aren't going to be very happy, but I just hope they will have patience."

The company says the fleet's reliability is to blame with "major component failures" needing to be fixed.

Grand Central launched its service from Sunderland to London in December last year and has faced a string of problems in its first five months of operation.