Consumer Deals Forum - c2c to be nationalised?

tkd Full Member Offline Posts: 61 London Gender:	c2c to be nationalised? Jul 1^st, 2009 at 9:02am According to BBC Radio 4 and Sky News the transport secretary Lord Adonis may terminate the National Express rail franchises - East Anglia and c2c, taking them into public ownership. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/East-Coast-Main-Line-Falls-Into-Govern...
Back to top	IP Logged

Del

Senior

Offline

Visitor to www.consumerdeals.co
.uk

Posts: 133

Re: c2c to be nationalised?
Reply #1 - Jul 1^st, 2009 at 10:22am

The BBC News channel this morning revealed that the East Coast contract was not in fact awarded to the same company that owns the other franchises.
National Express set up a subsidiary company to take on the East Coast franchise, which they say means the maximum the Govt. could recover is limited to just £72m out of the £1.4bn!
As a result National Express have issued a statement refuting the goverments right to withdraw the East Anglia & c2c franchises.

Back to top

IP Logged

tkd Full Member Offline Posts: 61 London Gender:	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #2 - Jul 1^st, 2009 at 11:22am They also said on R4 this morning that they hoped to take back control of NXEC at a later date.
Back to top	IP Logged

tkd Full Member Offline Posts: 61 London Gender:	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #3 - Jul 5^th, 2009 at 8:02pm Statement on the issue has been made on the c2c website. http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/latest_updates/news/c2c_and_national_express_east_co...
Back to top	IP Logged

Del

Senior

Offline

Visitor to www.consumerdeals.co
.uk

Posts: 133

Re: c2c to be nationalised?
Reply #4 - Sep 7^th, 2009 at 2:50pm

Looks like c2c will be taken over by Stagecoach, extract from the Echo:
The future of the troubled National Express train franchise seems clearer after the group announced it was in talks about a possible takeover from a Spanish-led consortium.
As part of the deal the group’s assets will be broken up and international transport giant Stagecoach will buy both the c2c and East Anglia franchises.

With a name like STAGECOACH I assume they're a bunch of cowboys!
Can't wait to hear the new announcements:
'The next train will be pulled by 8 horses'

Back to top

IP Logged

steven

Senior

Offline

Posts: 211
Basildon
Gender: male

Re: c2c to be nationalised?
Reply #5 - Sep 7^th, 2009 at 9:34pm

Lets not forget that when Stagecoach took over the SWT franchise at nationalisation, they promptly cut costs, and then discovered than had too few drivers to run the timetable.

Later still they attempted to close and/or reduce ticket office hours, but for once the Department for/of Transport stood up to them and said no.

That said SWT (and EMT) do seem to be able run a good service. However Stagecoach will only have the London Tilbury and Southend franchise (if they do take over Nat Ex, who were once the largest operator of trains) for less than 2 years.

LTS is in the process of being retendered as the current franchise runs out in 2011, plans for an extension seem to have been dropped.

Now might be the time to engage with some of the rail user groups on the line (SRTA, TRUG & LPAG) to ensure the government does not pull a fast one and reduce the franchise spec.

Our new secondhand trains which we were supposed to be getting are off the radar, although the platform extensions do seem to be going ahead (2011 ish for work to start). I think even this is not to full spec as Shoebury will still have an 8 car platform which will restrict mainline 12 car services to some extent, although all the tilbury / ockendon / rainham platforms will be done.

Back to top

WWW

IP Logged

tkd Full Member Offline Posts: 61 London Gender:	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #6 - Sep 7^th, 2009 at 11:09pm Aside from the cost of acquiring National Express, Stagecoach have to pay 100 million pounds to the Department for Transport as a "change of control" payment. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSL62754...
Back to top	IP Logged

tog Junior Member Offline Watch this space Posts: 30	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #7 - Sep 16^th, 2009 at 10:12am Del wrote on Sep 7^th, 2009 at 2:50pm: With a name like STAGECOACH I assume they're a bunch of cowboys! Can't wait to hear the new announcements: 'The next train will be pulled by 8 horses' ...or four on the Tilbury Loop.
Back to top	IP Logged

Del Senior Offline Visitor to www.consumerdeals.co .uk Posts: 133	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #8 - Oct 16^th, 2009 at 4:08pm This morning the Spanish consortium walked away from the National Express take-over deal. The NEX share price dropped 26% on the news. So its back to square one.
Back to top	IP Logged

Del Senior Offline Visitor to www.consumerdeals.co .uk Posts: 133	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #9 - Oct 19^th, 2009 at 11:34am Stagecoach have today made an offer themselves to buy National Express following the failure of the consortium bid last Friday. So c2c could still become part of the Stagecoach group.
Back to top	IP Logged

Del Senior Offline Visitor to www.consumerdeals.co .uk Posts: 133	Re: c2c to be nationalised? Reply #10 - Oct 29^th, 2009 at 5:41pm This deal has now fallen through as well.
Back to top	IP Logged

tkd

Full Member

Offline

Posts: 61
London
Gender: male

New operator from 2011
Reply #11 - Nov 26^th, 2009 at 11:15am

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574559142674202798.html?m...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8380108.stm

National Express will not be allowed to bid for the c2c franchise renewal in 2011 and will be forced to hand back the East Anglia franchise three years early.

I think they can stop adding "National Express" to the trains as they will be coming off again within 18 months!

The franchise end dates will be 31 May 2011 (c2c) and 31 March 2011 (East Anglia). If the DfT was minded to merge the franchises they might have synchronised these dates.

Back to top

IP Logged