National Express Group launched its East Coast Main Line franchise yesterday with promises of a ”44m (”61.2m) investment in the London to Edinburgh service.
Under former franchise owners GNER the route became the tardiest in the country, with two out of ten journeys arriving late. The new owners promise a 100-day ”joint improvement plan” with Network Rail to try to ensure more trains leave King”s Cross on time by minimizing engineering disruptions. By December 2008 it wants to get 90% services arriving on time ” the industry average ” and push on from there.
”We want the East Coast to be the best and the most efficient railway and we want to grow it,” said National Express chief executive Richard Bowker.
From day one free WiFi will be available in standard as well as first class, and hot meals will also be served to passengers in standard.
By December 2010 five additional trains will help provide a further 25 services with 14,000 extra seats each weekday ” and business travelers will benefit from a new London to Lincoln route, extra services to York, and faster London services to Leeds (1hr45min) and Edinburgh (less than 4hr20min). More than ”10m (”13.9m) will be spent on stations, with a target to increase parking facilities by 33%.
”Wireless internet in all carriages means the train really is a mobile office where travelers can use their time productively,” said a National Express spokesman. ”Passengers can continue to enjoy high-spec first class lounges, with a new one planned at York station.
”London is a key market for business travelers so punctuality is obviously vital. We will be re-invigorating the relationship with Network Rail, because 70% of delays are due to infrastructure-related problems. Obviously we have to do better ourselves, but we also have to manage Network Rail better to make sure they improve their on-time record themselves.”
A redesigned website for the rail line - launched by GNER before it relinquished the franchise ” is still in operation, allowing travelers to search for the best fare by either train time, fare group or through a new ”lowest fares finder” tool that highlights the cheapest rail fare combination for any day of travel.
Using this better ticket system, National Express plans to attract 10m extra passengers, and it will need to in order to meet its ”1.4bn (”1.95bn) premium payment to the government which it bid for the franchise ” understood to be ”200m (”278m) more than the next closest bidder - which runs until 2015.
National Express has said that improvements to the line will have to come from restructuring the franchise into a smaller, more efficient organization ” ”The whole thing works if it is absolutely professional. That is really the key,” said Bowker.
This suggests job losses, and the group is also planning to raise unregulated fares by an average of 2.1% above inflation for the next seven years. Britain”s biggest rail union, the RMT, said it would resist any attempt to make its members pay for the ”ludicrous” franchise agreement.
"The government has absolutely no incentive to make rail fares fairer if they're hoping for a share of National Express's spoils - and if they've got their revenue sums wrong they'll be using even more public money to shore the franchise up,” said RMT general secretary Bob Crow.
"The franchise system is a mess and has to go, and we give fair warning that we will resist any attacks on our members' jobs, pay and conditions."