Calendar East Coast News

York MP Hugh Bayley has been speaking to Calendar about the announcement to open the East Coast mainline to franchise bids.

• UK
• Yorkshire
• Lincolnshire

Virgin confirms it is planning to bid for the East Coast line franchise.

Read more: The true cost of the West Coast franchise fiasco

• UK
• Transport
• Rail

Maria Eagle MP, Shadow Transport Secretary, has responded to the Government’s plans for rail franchising:

“The full scale of the chaos caused by the Government’s rail franchising fiasco has now been revealed with almost every contract delayed by up to a staggering fifty months. Ministers have still not come clean about the full extent of the losses facing taxpayers as a result of this scandal, despite many industry experts putting the likely cost at well over £100 million and a series of legal disputes yet to be settled.

It is completely the wrong decision to focus obsessively on an unnecessary privatisation of InterCity services on the East Coast, instead of prioritising getting the existing stalled franchise programme back on track. Ministers must be very careful not to mislead the public as they make their case for this misguided sell-off. It is simply wrong to suggest that planned public investment in the East Coast Main Line by Network Rail and the taxpayer funded order for a new generation of InterCity trains would not be happening without this privatisation.

The truth is that the current not for private profit operator has returned £640 million to taxpayers and reinvested a further £40 million, profit that in future will be shared with shareholders rather than benefiting passengers under the Government’s plans.

• UK
• Yorkshire
• Lincolnshire

Transport Minister Simon Burns has been speaking to us about the Government's announcement to open bids to take over the running of the East Coast mainline.

• UK
• Yorkshire
• Lincolnshire

Rail unions reacted with dismay to the East Coast news, pointing out that the private sector had twice given up the franchise, with GNER pulling out some years ago.

They also highlighted the fact that the taxpayer is likely to have to foot a bill as high as £50 million over the botched West Coast franchise.

Despite wasting hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on the franchising circus, and instead of learning the lessons of the privatisation disasters on the East and West Coast main lines and across the rest of the network, the Government has this morning given the green light to a whole new wave of profiteering that will have the train companies laughing all the way to the bank.

The proposed reprivatisation of the East Coast, after the public sector rescued the service following two private failures, proves conclusively that the political class have learnt absolutely nothing when it comes to our railways.

This is a politically-inspired wrecking move designed to flog off this publicly-owned intercity route before the next election regardless of the consequences.

He continued.

With this news coming just a day before the 50th anniversary of the Beeching Report that ripped Britain's railways to pieces, the ConDem administration is setting up yet another sell-off of state assets in a further act of grotesque rail vandalism.

The public need to know that, while fares are going up and safety is being compromised, the Government's priority remains the profits of the greedy train operating companies. No wonder 70% of the people now support RMT's call for full renationalisation.

• UK
• Yorkshire
• Lincolnshire

The East Coast main line is expected to be back in private hands in less than two years under rail franchise plans announced by the Government.

The line has been run under the control of the Department for Transport since November 2009 after transport company National Express pulled out.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced the start of a bidding competition for the East Coast franchise with an expected start of service by the new operator in February 2015.

He also published a detailed timetable for all rail franchise arrangements over the next eight years, following a major review after the West Coast bidding process had to be abandoned last year.

• UK
• Yorkshire
• Lincolnshire

Plans to put the east cost rail route back into private ownership have been criticised by a Labour MP. The government is expected to confirm the proposals this week.

It is a bizarre and dogmatic decision to prioritise the privatisation of a service that is actually on track. Since running services on a not for private profit basis, the East Coast operator has returned £640 million to the taxpayer and invested more than £40 million in improvements to the service, achieving some of the best results since records began."

• UK
• East Coast
• Trains

Latest train delays information here.

Thousands of rail commuters leaving Yorkshire for London are facing much-delayed journeys due to an electrical supply problem.

Centred on north London, the problem was last night causing hold-ups of up to 90 minutes on some journeys between London's King's Cross and Moorgate stations and Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Passengers travelling with - East Coast, First Hull and Grand Central trains - are also affected.

• UK
• East Coast
• trains

This is what the new £8.1m Westgate Station in Wakefield will look like when it is built next year.

A new station building, more retail facilities, a travel centre, a First Class Lounge, new waiting area and ticket gates are all part of the project, which will be completed by next October. Construction is due to start later this year.

• UK
• Wakefield
• Westgate Station