EAST MIDLANDS TRAINS MANAGING DIRECTOR JAKE KELLY TALKS TO PHILIP SHERRATT ABOUT HOW SERVICES IN THE REGION HAVE IMPROVED AND WHAT IS STILL TO COME
The East Midlands franchise is an operation of contrasts. High-speed services on the Midland main line connect the region’s cities to London at speeds of up to 125mph. But over in rural Lincolnshire single-car Class 153s run to archaic timetables that are not well-matched to customer demand.
Stagecoach has operated East Midlands Trains since November 2007, when the Midland main line operation was combined with the eastern half of the former Central Trains franchise. That deal ran until 2015, with a direct award agreement now in place until 2018, when a new competed franchise is set to begin. On 1 March, the Department for Transport announced that Stagecoach would compete with Arriva and a joint venture between FirstGroup and Trenitalia to bid for the new deal.
MAIN LINE
Over the past 10 years, East Midlands Trains has continued the transformation of Midland main line services, which are now a far cry from the minimal two trains per hour service into St Pancras of the mid-1990s. ‘We’ve massively grown revenue and volume of the main line services since 2007’ …
