Virgin Trains East Coast - failure within weeks of starting

[@garfstiglz3981]

90% Stagecoach, 10% Virgin Trains ownership. Basically, they thought it was going to be a cash-cow. When they realised they weren't going to make a profit because they didn't carry out due diligence they handed back the keys, walked away, keeping their deposit and dumped the UK taxpayer with the remnants. What a wonderful thing rail franchising is. Do contracts not mean anything these days, obviously not when it comes to HM Government and tax payers money. As far as I'm concerned, I think any rail company that fails in a franchise should be barred from applying for any other franchises in the future! Maybe I could have my income tax back because I don't think it's being used correctly by the government?

[@BusRoutesBristol]

Garfunkel Stiglitz i agree, it’s disgusting, there is nothing to stop this business bidding for the east coast franchise or any future franchise again. They shouldn’t be allowed to.

[@devon896]

What annoys me is when First got the West Coast franchise Branson kicked up a stink, saying that the FWC franchise would go bankrupt and none of his companies ever have, then he made a stink about bidding for the East Coast and never getting it, when he finally did (basically to shut him up) Virgin/Stagecoach massively overpaid, and then went bankrupt, and Branson just walked away and blamed it all on Stagecoach and the DFT.

[@Cartoonman154]

How would it be faster journey times when they will be running the same speeds.

[@SaveEastCoastRewards]

It apparently has better acceleration. That said, the journey times they're proposing are about the same as we had when British Rail launched the current class 91 locomotives on the line. I'm not sure why journey times were increased (might have been the speed limit dropped on certain sections of track or more timetable padding) but the initial Azuma journey times just take us back to the 90s. It will be possible when the signals are upgraded to run these at 140MPH, but then again if the work had ever been done it would be possible to run the class 91s at 140 MPH too.

[@devon896]

Train times increased because more services have been added, its basically going from an empty motorway and going at top speed, to a busy motorway doing 50mph.

[@shedontanks]

Me good mate Meestah David Horne 🎷