National Express may lose East Coast Main Line franchise

May 6 2009 by Will Green, The Journal

EAST Coast rail operator National Express may lose the right to run trains amid an explosion of fresh speculation about its financial health, The Journal can reveal.

Bosses at the bus-to-train operator have repeatedly pushed aside concerns about whether they could afford to pay the Government around £1.4bn to run the East Coast rail franchise.

Transport ministers have also insisted National Express would meet its commitments on the route, linking the North East with London and Scotland.

But fresh speculation over the firm’s deal that sealed the contract to operate East Coast services less than two years ago has erupted ahead of National Express’ annual general meeting today.

Prior to the meeting, National Express this morning said its key franchise for trains between London and Edinburgh had seen underlying revenue growth of 0.3% in the first three months of 2009 - compared with 9% growth last year.