The DfT have announced that Virgin / Stagecoach have won the contract to take over the East Coast Main Line service from March 2015. The new company will trade as Virgin Trains East Coast and is owned 90% by The Stagecoach Group and 10% by The Virgin Group. We shall be sorry to say goodbye to the government owned East Coast Trains with whom SENRUG has enjoyed a close relationship, and look to Virgin to develop and build on this. Although Virgin was not one of the bidders that sought SENRUG’s views as they developed their tender, we have high hopes we can develop a constructive working relationship with them and they will examine the commercial case for more trains calling at Morpeth. It was, after all, when the CrossCountry franchise was operated by Virgin, that Morpeth stops were first introduced on CrossCountry services, so the company already enjoys a strong reputation in this region.
