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National Express East Coast

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 09:11

East Coast Main Line Taken Into Public Ownership

THE Government is to take the East Coast rail service run by National Express into public ownership.

The troubled rail franchise, which runs between London, Yorkshire and Edinburgh has made heavy losses in the first half of this year, and has stated that they are not in a position to continue to meet its obligations under their current franchise agreement.

Despite an excellent reputation for reliability, the route is suffering from falling passenger numbers and National Express has wanted to renegotiate the terms of its franchise which sees it paying £1.4bn to the Government until 2015. Ministers have however refused the company's requests and today the The Department of Transport said that it is taking over the running of the line, guaranteeing that all East Coast services will continue and tickets will be honoured.

There is also speculation about National Express's remaining franchises (National Express East Anglia and C2C), but the company said it did not believe the Government had the power to terminate the franchises on these routes.

The Department of Transport expects a smooth transition to public ownership on the route, and hopes to relet the franchise within the next twelve months.

National Express took over the East Coast rail franchise at the beginning of 2008 after previous operators GNER ran into financial difficulties.

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