The East Coast Mainline route runs from King's Cross to Edinburgh
THE operator of a main London to Scotland rail route has been stripped of its franchise after its parent company ran into financial difficulties.
The Department for Transport said it was inviting expressions of interest to operate the East Coast Mainline route which has been run by GNER since the late 1990s.
A new franchisee is expected to be in place in 12-18 months time and until then GNER will operate the franchise on behalf of the DfT under a no-fee management agreement deal.
GNER runs train from King's Cross station in London to Edinburgh, its owners, Sea Containers, filed for bankruptcy in the US in October.
Earlier this month, transport union RMT said any attempt by the firm to impose redundancies would be resisted with strike action.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow today called for the GNER franchise to be brought back in-house immediately to safeguard jobs.
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"Priority number one must be for the government to tell GNER today that its plans to cut jobs across the franchise will not be allowed to proceed," Mr Crow said.
"Sea Containers have defaulted on what was always an absurd franchise agreement and GNER's operations should taken back in-house to harnesss the revenue for the benefit of the whole industry.
"Sea Containers' disastrous tenure had destabilised a key part of Britain's railway network, and it makes no sense to continue handing them guaranteed, risk-free profits on a management-fee contract."
Mr Crow said that allowing Sea Containers to stay in charge sent a signal to other privateers that if they get into financial difficulties they too would be bailed out with public money.
"The franchicing policy is now clearly in complete disarray and there should be an immediate moratorium on the process," he said.
"Refranchising GNER would cost millions for the paperwork alone, and we would only end up with yet another privateer being handed a licence to drain public money out of the railway industry."
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