Train beers just became official

Grand Central has teamed up with Sunderland’s Vaux Brewery to launch a beer that is now exclusively available onboard all Grand Central train services. db finds out more.

The 5.3% ABV double dry hopped hazy pale ale, named ‘On The Rales’, combines locally sourced ingredients and celebrates the communities that Grand Central connects across its North East and West Riding services.

The new beer is now available on Grand Central services, with the North East route starting at Sunderland, where the ‘On the Rales’ beer is brewed, and passes through stations including Hartlepool, Northallerton and York before making its way to London King’s Cross.

The brewer has outlined how this partnership celebrates deep regional ties, including Grand Central’s parent company, Arriva, which has roots that trace back to Sunderland.

Train services have previously dabbled with the idea of train beers. Notably, Rudgate Brewey’s beer Hop On Board, a 4% ABV golden ale which was originally brewed for Virgin Trains East Coast before Rudgate teamed up with LNER trains. However, the sentiment of train beers playing a crucial role in beer tourism and their destinations is considered to be a newer stance. Rather than simply contract brew a beer for a train, beers that are distinct collaborative efforts or echo the passenger’s journey and are becoming embraced by transport services and travel hubs who can really serve the projects well with their knowledge of the area.

For many communities in the North East and Yorkshire, including Sunderland, Halifax, Hartlepool and Pontefract, Grand Central is the only train operator providing direct links to London, making use of available rail capacity to run additional services. The prospect of train beers being sold to help the journey pass smoothly as well as anchor people with a sense of the area has been welcomed.

Grand Central also has live proposals in place with the rail regulator to provide new services to other areas of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, offering direct services from Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Habrough, and Scunthorpe. These services could be in place as early as December 2026 and could provide more than 775,000 additional seats annually, generating up to £30.1 million per year for the local economy through improved business, tourism, and connectivity. Now, there are more reasons to ride with these services.

Describing the partnership, Luke Purcell, senior marketing manager at Grand Central said: “As a leading leisure travel provider, we’re proud to be a champion of businesses along the routes we service, and this partnership exemplifies that. It marries together two Sunderland stories on our trains – Vaux’s brewing renaissance and Arriva’s roots. It’s been a really fun process creating the new beer, from the eye-catching can design, naming of the beer and also selecting the tastes – we just hope all of the Grand Central passengers enjoy the taste as much as we do.”

Steven Smith, director at Vaux Brewery added: “Working with Grand Central to create ‘On The Rales’ has been a fantastic project and has given us the chance to capture the essence of travel, togetherness and local pride that sweeps through the city of Sunderland. Grand Central seemed like the perfect partner for us as the beer is brewed half a mile from where the trains depart from Sunderland station.”

Over in Canada, a similar collaboration took place – only with a bus service – when a Canadian transport company teamed up with a brewery to generate a new stream of revenue. The move was heralded as a way for craft breweries to work closely with road and rail travel businesses on collaborations to help ramp up tourism and also co-market beer to a captive audience in a new way.

Train beers may already be a reality in a contract brewing sense, as well as for short term collaborative projects, but the new projects making their may forward with transport hubs are showing that there is still room for the concept to grow and become a committed route to building interest in brewery destinations as well as creating ancillary income for both businesses.

Related news

Trend for mulled beer hits the UK

Beer made from recycled shower water hits the market

Outlaw Light expands in Ohio, marking the rise of low calorie beer