Questions to be asked over East Coast Main Line

Jul 3 2009 by William Green, The Journal

NATIONAL Express is only the latest operator to fall foul of the Government’s railway franchise policy.

Questions were immediately raised when National Express agreed to pay £1.4bn to the Government over the lifetime of the East Coast franchise in 2007.

That followed worries about the £1.3bn price tag that previous operator GNER proved incapable of meeting.

At the time Chris Stokes, National Express’s head of rail bidding, said it was “very confident” of its business plan with the franchise – which began in December 2007 and was due to end in March 2015 – was not the same as that awarded to GNER in 2005.

Speaking in 2007, Berwick MP Sir Alan Beith said: “I am particularly concerned that National Express will be paying an even higher premium to the Government than the premium GNER found themselves unable to pay.”

The Department for Transport (DfT) said all bids were subject to stringent tests, but despite those reassurances, warnings about the franchise became louder and louder.

Now there are growing calls from Labour MPs and union chiefs who want the railways nationalised after the East Coast franchise failed for a second time within three years.