East Coast train line to be put into public control
I wonder if this debacle will tarnish the Virgin Brand? Irrespective of the operator I alway find the staff on this service good and the service itself relatively punctual. Perhaps we should put more store in the people less in the brand when we think about and procure services!!!
Rail services on the East Coast Main Line are being brought back under government control, following the failure of the current franchise.
Operators Stagecoach and Virgin Trains will hand over control from 24 June.
The Department for Transport will run the service until a new public-private partnership can be appointed in 2020.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said it would smooth the transition to a new operator, but critics said it was evidence of private sector failure.
Mr Grayling said the franchise had failed because Stagecoach and Virgin Trains had “got their bid wrong”, overestimating the profitability of the line.
It is the third time in a just over a decade that the government has called a halt to the East Coast franchise.
The London to Edinburgh line has been run by a joint venture between Stagecoach and Virgin, since 2015.
The companies promised to pay £3.3bn to run the franchise until 2023, but at the end of last year it become clear they were running into trouble.
In February it was announced that the franchise would end early, leading to accusations the government was bailing them out.