The Government has published a shortlist of three bidders under plans to re-privatise the East Coast rail mainline
The Government has published a shortlist of three bidders under plans to re-privatise the East Coast rail mainline
They are East Coast Trains (First Group); Keolis/Eurostar East Coast (Keolis UK and Eurostar International); and Inter City Railways (Stagecoach Transport Holdings and Virgin Holdings).
This has sparked a row over whether the 393-mile Edinburgh-London franchise should be publicly run. Unions and other groups have been campaigning to halt re-privatisation of the service, which has been in public hands since 2009.
Manuel Cortes, leader of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association rail union, said: "This is nothing short of economic vandalism by a chancellor who does not want voters to know the truth about the East Coast line - it is a public sector success story." Rail Minister Stephen Hammond said: "Giving passengers more will be at the heart of the new East Coast franchise. That means new services and journeys that are faster, more punctual and more comfortable.
"When these companies are developing their proposals they should be looking at ways to innovate and grow the service."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article