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THE East Coast Main Line railway will remain in public ownership for at least three more years, the government has announced.
The 393-mile route, which links cities and towns from London to Edinburgh, had been run neither efficiently nor profitably under a series of bungling privateers.
Each failure forced the government to take the operation back into public ownership, during which time services improved and produced millions of pounds in surpluses for the Exchequer.
The latest failed privateer, Virgin Trains East Coast, lost the franchise in 2018, when it was again taken back into public hands — where it will now remain until at least 2023.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, welcomed the decision, but said: “We think the government should announce that this line will stay in public ownership permanently. It’s what passengers want, it’s what rail staff want, and we know from survey after survey that it’s what voters — of all political parties and shades of ideological opinion — want, too.”
