French high speed operator joins Virgin’s West Coast rail franchise bid

Virgin Trains is looking to continue its dominance of the West Coast Main Line after forming a new joint venture to bid for the next franchise.

French high speed operator SNCF has been added to the existing Stagecoach and Virgin partnership to bid for the franchise, which will start in April 2019 and cover up to the first five years of the operation of HS2.

The new franchise – the West Coast Partnership – will be responsible for services on both the West Coast Main Line from 2019 and designing and running the initial high speed services from 2026.

Martin Griffiths, chief executive of Stagecoach Group, said: “This creates a powerful world-class partnership, bringing together the team which has transformed inter-city rail travel in the UK with the most recognised and capable high speed operator in Europe.

“The new franchise has an important role to play in delivering the improvements and space on our railway that can support our communities and economy.”

Stagecoach has a 50% share in the bid vehicle, West Coast Partnership Limited, with a 30% share held by SNCF and 20% owned by Virgin. If the bid is selected, it is expected the services would operate under the Virgin brand.

Guillaume Pepy, chairman of SNCF added: “This is a very exciting development for SNCF. We are world leaders in high speed rail. SNCF has a long-standing commitment to working in partnership with British companies, using their local knowledge and sharing our expertise and experience.”

Virgin has operated the trains on the London-Scotland routes, which serves Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, since privatisation in 1997.

It had the franchise renewed in 2012 – albeit after initially coming second behind FirstGroup – and then had its agreement extended to March 2019.

The Stagecoach, Virgin and SNCF team yesterday submitted its expression of interest to the Department for Transport and will begin preparations for the invitation to tender which the government is expected to issue by the end of the year.

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