Resignation and exasperation rather than surprise seem to have been the main reactions to the news that Stagecoach and Virgin would be pulling out of the East Coast contract even earlier than had been previously announced, possibly within just a few weeks’ time.
Resignation, because for months now you could see the always ambitious, some would even say heroic, promise to deliver close to £3 billion to the taxpayer by the end of the franchise beginning to unravel. First with the news that Network Rail would not be able to deliver the upgrades necessary for many of the improvements envisaged, then with ridership growth not being as fast as had been hoped, and most recently concern that initial passenger reaction to the Inter-city Express (IEP) trains on Great Western, which are also due to be introduced on the East Coast later this year, has not been exactly euphoric.
And exasperation because, with the franchise failing for the third time in a row, it must surely now be clear to all that the model doesn’t work. The Department for Transport has effectively acknowledged this in announcing that from 2020 the East Coast route will be run as a competitively tendered public-private partnership. Given recent …
