This represents a major U-turn by the Government which has been adamant that under no circumstances would it re-negotiate franchises.

Is this indicative of the weak hand on the tiller from Douglas Alexander who is scarcely the most vibrant Secretary of State for Transport?

If it speeds services between Edinburgh and London then i don't mind so long as the prices don't continue to rise rise rise.

I think we should welcome this decision, not criticise the Minister. It shows that the Tories' privatisation is a failure (if you can't make the esat Coast line work what can you make work?). It's the next step to bringing the train companies back into public ownership

GNER has been the only rail company that have gained the respect of their customers over their term.

Shame on the governement for allowing this to happen.

Was this intentional?

#3 Think you'll find the East coast line can work...hence GNER's £20 million profit last year. The problem is a mixture of finanical trouble for Sea containers and increase in costs for GNER. GNER actually paid out a hefty £35.7 million in dividends to its parent just before sea containers filed for chapter 11......perhaps this is why GNER is feeling the strain and not simply they cant make it work. (http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/74716.html)

Lush is spot on.

Doesn't help either that the government are allowing a new operator onto the line between Newcastle and London without operating under the same rules as the GNER franchise, making it impossible to compete.

Come on T Blair, explain yourself!!

GNER allowed themselves to pay too high a price and not to walk away when the Government changed the terms of the franchise at the last minute (two hours before the deadline, I think, allowing rival operators, #6). They gambled on a number of assumptions, and didn't foresee the travails of their parent company.

A shame in many ways as they are one of the better train operators.

The railways should never been privatised and the quicker they are sorted out the better for all.

I wish GNER would stop whining. Their problem is they bid far too much for the contract. It's their own fault. And having gone and done that they can't then turn round and say they want to keep it for less than someone else could actually have paid.

They run scores of trains a day, if the prospect of another operator running three a day over part of the route is so deathly, even before it starts (which I don't believe it can be) then they obviously had serious problems anyway.

A less fanciful explanation for their problems would be that they put in a crazy bid for the line, but one under which payments didn't start for a few years, in the hope they could syphon as much money off to the parent company as quickly as possible, and then possibly even still be able to bully the government into letting them keep the franchise for less.

As for their customer service - it's lukewarm at best if you consider that they took over from BR the best trains on the most modern railway in the first place.

The problem isn't with privatization but with the way the system was privatized. Privatization only works when Competition is allow. This inevitably pushes up service and lowers prices (This happens in most cases, excluding outside forces that can cause prices to rise). The problem with rail privatization was that no competition was allowed into the system.
Only by allowing various companies to run on the same routes will privatization work and delivery the promises over improved services so overdue.

A change in franchise? What does this really mean?
The same trains that used to be state owned by British Rail will be repainted and rebranded. The same staff will operate the service - probably with similar terms and conditions. The trains will still be owned by the banks. Only the board room will really be affected and the address of the shareholders.

The ECML is getting a bit overloaded these days and it has little room for growth. While it is the straightest and arguably still the fastest route to London it is still restricted by twisty bits and bottlenecks inherited from the past and outdated signal systems. Knowing how costly it is to upgrade a working railway - the WCML upgrade was a money pit and not as fast as promised - it is mabye time to build a brand new parallel route to the ECML.

It is rather worrying that our not very clever government concerned about congestion, global warming, Iraq and the break up of the United Kingdom will shy away from a proper TGV-LGV route from London to Edinburgh giving a 2 1/4 hour journey time - similar to the London to Paris route.
The current infrastructure set up is pulling the South East economy towards Europe and away from the North and Scotland. (A national disgrace that Paris by rail is now quicker from London than Edinburgh!)

A proper end to end (none of this half-baked nonsense) Anglo-Scottish LGV would reduce congestion on the roads, free up capacity on the low gradient ECML and WCML for fuel efficient container freight, reduce global warming from short-haul air and help strengthen the combined economies of Scotland and England.

Worried about the country falling apart - then build something to be proud of which will pull people and nations together!

It would have been good if GNER had been around to operate the service but the staff will continue to work the route, even if the paint and the track changes.

Angus Mcdonald #2 - Right on cue, GNER announced today a fares increase in excess of 5%!

Will the weak and ineffective Douglas Alexander step in? Not a chance.