The planned start date of the new franchise is November 2011.
East Coast is a revenue generative business which returns a surplus to the public purse. Payments are made on a rail period rather than monthly basis. The following table shows the payments that East Coast is contracted to make in its first five periods of operation which show that the business will return some £47 million to the public purse during this time.
Rail period Amount (£) Period 9 (part period) 13 November 2009 to 12 December 2009 112,636,157 Period 10 13 December 2009 to 9 January 2010 2(4,630,742) Period 11 10 January 2010 to 6 February 2010 114,183,011 Period 12 7 February 2010 to 6 March 2010 113,786,696 Period 13 7 March 2010 to 31 March 2010 111,112,614 Total 147,087,736 1 Payment to DFT. 2 Payment to East Coast.
It is not possible to estimate the likely cost to the public purse of the failure of National Express's East Coast franchise at present. The final cost is dependent on the resolution of outstanding issues with National Express, the level of ticket revenue generated by East Coast and the value achieved for the franchise when it is re-let.
No jobs were lost either directly or indirectly as a result of the failure of National Express's East Coast Mainline franchise.
Some changes were made to the executive team with a new Managing Director appointed before the handover and three new Directors since.
The failure of National Express East Coast will not result in a cost to the economy. The Government ensured the continuity of rail services through the use of its statutory powers.