East Coast Railway Line: Franchises

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what penalty payments (a) NXEC and (b) National Express made to his Department following the termination of their tenure of the East Coast Main Line franchise. (324590)

As a result of the termination of the NXEC franchise, the Department for Transport called both the performance and the season ticket bonds maintained by the company. These were valued at £31.4 million and £4.8 million respectively.

Additionally, before the termination and in accordance with their franchise agreement, National Express was required to provide £40 million of financial support to NXEC to maintain the financial ratios specified in NXEC's franchise agreement. This represents a non-refundable cost to National Express.