ECML delivers step improvement from day one!

PPM for the last day of National Express East Coast - 100%

PPM for the first day of nationalised East Coast Main Line - 76%

As DafT sows, so shall it reap!

At King's Cross a solitary lament...

By the wonders of MMS this from Captain Deltic...


Or, indeed, ever!

NXEC emails goodbye...

Those on the NXEC database should have received the following email by now:

From: National Express Coaches [mailto:newsletter@update.nationalexpress.com]
Sent: 13 November 2009 22:07
To: thefactcompiler@yahoo.co.uk

Subject: The Fact, thank you for travelling with National Express East Coast

If you are having trouble viewing this email, please visit this link

Marketing National Express Coaches to a franchise database should endear NatEx to Lord Adonis, DfT and the Treasury!

UPDATE: This from Carlton Browne of the FO...

I wonder if your readers noticed the “alternative” grammar in the first sentence of the round robin email below from Nat Ex.

I hope it is not indicative of what happens to standards when rail franchises get taken over by the public sector!

Pudsey overlooked in great East Coast giveaway - Shocker

Telegrammed by Globetrotter
With apologies to the BBC, but isn’t his Lordship out by a week in his timing?

Surely it’s next Friday night (November 20) when UK taxpayers are traditionally invited to dig deep in their pockets and give generously for charitable causes?


Not that last year’s £28m would go far in filling the bottomless pit formerly known as NXEC.

UPDATE: This from J Alfred Prufrock...

Oh, I don't know.

£25 million would probably top up DOR East Coast's revenue shortfall for almost the next four months, now that NXEC's £40 million has gone.

DOR caught on hop by Adonis NXEC decision

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Directly Operated Railways seems to have been taken by surprise by the decision to bring forward the termination date of the National Express East Franchise by a month.

Until this week DOR was working on taking over at the timetable change on 13th December.

Now it is 13th November - just over a week away.

Had they had a subscription to the Orange Peril, otherwise known as Rail Business Intelligence, they would have found on the City Page of the October 29 issue an erudite analysis of the NXEC burn rate.

This showed that the franchise was losing £1.27m a week and had £6 million left in the kitty as of 30th September.

So it was pretty clear that NXEC was going to run out of money well before 13th December.

Perhaps DOR was hoping that all those cheap advance purchase tickets NXEC has been flogging would boost revenue - despite other operators experience showing it hammering the revenue line.

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

DOR still appears to be caught on the back foot judging by their website.


It still has no mention of the momentous news...

UPDATE: This from Lobby Fodder...

I'm not surprised that DOR has been caught out.

There were 'animated discussions' and raised voices late into last night, between party spin doctors and Treasury officials, over how the renationalisation was to be portrayed.

Judging from today's low key announcement the Treasury won.

Adonis pulls plug on NXEC - Official Statement

Franchised Rail Services: Update

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): Further to my statements on 1 July 2009 [Official Report, Col.225 and Official Report, Col. WS 24] on East Coast main line rail services, after the close of the markets yesterday I notified National Express East Coast Ltd that I am terminating their franchise with effect from 11:59 pm on 13 November.

The publicly owned East Coast Main Line company will take over running of this franchise from that time, with an orderly handover from National Express East Coast. I can assure the travelling public that services will continue without disruption and all tickets will be honoured.

Staff currently employed by National Express East Coast will transfer to the East Coast Main Line company under the Transfers of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), with the necessary statutory consultation.