ITALY became the latest European country to get a slice of the British railway pie yesterday when National Express announced it had sold its C2C franchise to state-owned Trenitalia for £70 million.

The sale of the London to Essex franchise sees Italy join Germany, Holland and France in taking over British rail services to make profits and subsidise their own stateowned rail operations.

Now Trenitalia, the Netherlands’ Abellio, France’s Keolis and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn — owner of Arriva — operate a whopping 70 per cent of Britain’s rail services. Rail workers quickly condemned the latest sale.