Partner Article

Selling East Coast Main Line in the face of runaway HS2

The Government has launched the search for a private franchisee to run the East Coast Main Line amid much opposition last week.

The Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said Whitehall wanted to see a “revitalisation” of the service by a private sector partner that would play a hand in a £240 million infrastructure investment programme on the line.

A new managing firm is expected to be announced next year, ready to take over the operation from 2015. It’s an interesting time for the Government to pursue privatisation, not least because the battle to justify HS2 is eating up so much of their energies.

Will they face difficulty in dressing the East Coast Main Line as a saleable product when the headlines are snatched up by HS2? Just this week, a report from Network Rail details the impact of cancelling the high speed project. It’s a worrying set of headlines for potential East Coast buyers - including 14 years of weekend line closures and doubling of some journey times.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .