History repeats itself as the current East Coast operator admits it will not meet its franchise commitments over the full eight year contract, and so will be replaced by an integrated ‘track and trains’ partnership.
THE eight-year Virgin Trains East Coast franchise is to finish three years early in 2020 following lower than expected growth in revenue and passenger numbers. It will be replaced by an integrated ‘track and trains’ joint venture between Network Rail and a new operating entity.
It had become clear that the financial performance of VTEC, which is 90% owned by Stagecoach and 10% by Virgin, was falling far short of the predictions it made to enable the promised premium payments.
For the eight-year agreement between 2015 and 2023, the franchise contract included a commitment to pay £3.3 billion to the Department for Transport. This was based on a 50% increase in passenger numbers over the period, and revenue growth of close to 10% per annum. The belief was that a combination of stronger marketing using the Virgin name and enhanced services following the introduction of Class 800 and Class 801 IETs would result in significant traffic growth.
The reality has been a much lower increase in passenger numbers, which has made the premium payments in later years unsustainable.
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Denne historien er fra January 2018-utgaven av Rail Express.
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LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
The ongoing pandemic restrictions and major engineering works have resulted in the complete withdrawal of the last remaining ‘Electras’ from passenger service, although the plan is to resurrect them in the summer.
Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.
Powerscene
Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.
Class 92 revolution
Despite its complex shape and high detail ratio compared to other modern six-axle locomotives, Revolution Trains chose the Class 92 to be its first 'N' gauge locomotive model.
Bottling it!
A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.
