Transport Secretary to renationalise East Coast Mainline
The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has confirmed that the East Coast Mainline, which connects Yorkshire with London Kings Cross, is set to be renationalised.
As we reported earlier this week, Grayling had been set to make the announcement before the weekend.
The East Coast rail franchise, which connects York, Leeds and Wakefield with the capital, is run by Stagecoach, which owns 90% of the franchise, and Virgin, which owns 10%.
In a statement this afternoon (16 May), Stagecoach confirmed the move. The company said: “We have now been advised by the Department for Transport that the Secretary of State for Transport plans to announce today that he intends to appoint the ‘Operator of Last Resort’ (OLR) to operate the InterCity East Coast trains services.”
In February, Grayling said that Stagecoach had “got its numbers wrong” and that it would only continue to run the East Coast Mainline “for a small number of months”.
