East Coast nationalised

It will be re-let next year. Sadly it wont be nationalised for good.

The bizarre thing is that, according to popular rumour, Richard Branson is said to have 'sacrificed' Cross Country in a bid to win the ECML. He ended up with neither. I bet he is wetting himself laughing now......

Something doesn't quite add up for me somewhere along the line......

Why would HM Government take over a loss making Company, when they spent the 80's selling such Companies off.........

I agree the Government were partially to blame - but ultimately, NX were as much to blame as they were. Since they took over the franchise, it has gone downhill fast - to the point where staff openly criticise it in front of passengers.

Indeed when Firstbus were rumoured to be interested, I was worried - but then again, the things they are renowned for (low maintenance, high prices, don't-give-a-monkeys attitude to passengers) already happened!

while the lack of speed (only 100mph, rather 125mph) and via Nottingham and Leicester problem is real, is going to St Pancras rather than Kings Cross a problem?

I'm surprised that the DfT mandated Lincoln-London trains before an open-access operator seriously considered them! What I don't get is the point of Lincoln-MML-London trains when there will be Lincoln-ECML-London trains.

I know it's only a ten second walk from KX, but SP isn't where I want to be, and previous to that, it was Euston, again only a short hop skip and jump, but when time isn't on your side.......

Anyhow, it's quicker and cheaper to change at Newark and go NXEC (as was)

Lincoln is just a branch line these days, and it shows! 100,000 people fairly much cut off from the real world.......

Ok just watched an interview with Lord Adonis. He answered my questions above. The NEEML business is profitable, but the payments the payments they were making were not being covered by that profit. In other words NE's forecasting did not anticipate a recession and assumed continual growth in passenger demand/numbers.

I can indeed confirm that both East Coast and East Anglia are being naitonalised. No word yet on c2c, but I do suspect that that too will follow suit.

Sort of. NXEA is my local TOC, and also I over heard a conversation yesterday, between four staff members, one was telling the other three that East Coast had been taken over by the government, and East Anglia was likely, if not certain, to follow soon! I just hope all these cut backs are abandoned if National Express go!

Okay he's not ALWAYS right, but Robert Peston (BBC Business Editor) has posted a couple of interesting articles on his business blog.
I could operate trains
Express Exit

From what I've read and heard reported, its my understanding that National Express didn't want to subsidise NXEC with the profit its been making from both NXEA or C2C. As Pestion says, will Lord Adonis try to make life difficult for NX now that he's refused to agree to a severance packagae of £100m.

IMO speculation about the DfT snatching back both NXEA & C2C is perhaps a little too premature (I'm prepared to be wrong), but surely nothing will happen until NX default on their payments to run the east coast service? So in theory aren't the services being run by NX until they do default

As Peston comments... it'll probably end up in the courts at a huge cost to us... the taxpayer... so instead of investing in our railways, successive Governments have wasted money on lining the already pretty full pockets of the legal fraturnity!!!

I personally feel that railways should not be run either as an exclusive business or as a social service/function, but rather a cross between the two. Governments have proved that they are incapable of managing the railways (I am refering to investment rather than day-to-day running under BR) and the so-called privatised railway structure is creaking, if not cracking up. Perhaps its time for a non-profit organisation(s) to run the railways, in that profits are ploughed directly back in so profitable business areas subsidise non-profitable, but nonetheless essential services!

Having read about this in the railway prees in the last month or so, there was some well informed debate on the question of the other franchises being taken away from NatEx, and the suggestion there was that they would.

In my view, the projection that passenger numbers would rise 9% per annum every year is rather pie in the sky. the infrastructure just wouldn't be able to cope with those numbers. In my days at Kings Cross in the mid 1970's, there was a Leeds train every 2 hours and a Scotland train every 2 hours and the system could only just cope with that! What amazes me is how it now copes with an express train seemingly every 10 minutes or less on the major route. But then there's less freight, no parcels, and very little ECS traffic.

I agree to some degree with comments by other contributors, that the way foward may be for the govetnment to take back certain responsibilities regarding the railway. They were quite hopeless during the BR period at planning anything, except wasting vast sums of money first on building new steam locos with a limited lif; a fleet of new diesels, some of which were succeded by the above steam locos; wating money reopening Thameslink which was closed a few years later when they demolished Blackfriars, modernising the drivers block at Waterloo in 1984 then demolishing it for Eurostar, the list goes on...

Back to the op though, it's no good companies crying wolf when the going gets tough. they've signed the contract for x years, if it gopes wrong, that's their problem. But, the public expect the service to carry on. There isn't a fairy godmother waiting there with a vast train set to take things over.

the person to blame for the cock up in the first place is the one who privatised evrything in the 1980's the Rt Hon member for Grantham, MH Thatcher. she's left a lasting legacy there!

Call me an old cynic,but wasn't that the whole point?
And not just on the railways,but for much of government spending in general.......

I've always felt industrial relations on LU have never recovered from the Company Plan, with even staff recruited afterwards effectively being 'contaminated' by those employed previously.