THE state-owned East Coast Main Line that runs services between London and Scotland is to be placed back in private hands, it has been confirmed.
It paves the way for Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson to bid to take control of the route.
The Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed it will announce plans to "return the franchise to the private sector as soon as practically possible" following speculation that it would remain in public hands.
The line was re-nationalised more than three years ago when National Express walked away due to heavy financial losses. .
East Coast's management has said it is "one of Britain's most profitable train operating companies". By the end of this month it will have returned £640 million in premium payments to the UK Government since it started.
The Government had backed recommendations following an inquiry into the collapse of the West Coast bid. Eurostar chairman Richard Brown's report called on the UK Government to pause competitions until it had implemented radical changes to policy at the DfT.
But the DfT is believed to have the view that since privatisation, the performance of the railways has far exceeded what the public sector has been able to do.
Maria Eagle MP, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, called on the UK Government to abandon the plan "not least" because of the premium payments returned.
Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, said: "The important thing is probably not the name on the train, but the experience of the journey, the availability of staff when you need them and value for money."
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