UK Government sets out 8 year plan for franchises with East Coast in lead

The UK government has made a priority of putting back the East Coast rail franchise into the private sector in 2015, and has also revealed plans to award the next Great Western franchise in 2016 as a management contract, in its announcement of a detailed franchising timetable for the next eight years. Plans to devolve the management of local rail services in the North of England to an alliance of local authorities have been delayed by almost two years to 2016 in the DfT’s revised...