New bid for rail franchise
NATIONAL Express Group plc has today put in its bid for the Greater Anglia rail franchise.Bidders for the company had until today to submit their bids to the Strategic Rail Authority to run the service but one, FirstGroup failed to pre-qualify earlier this year.
NATIONAL Express Group plc has today put in its bid for the Greater Anglia rail franchise.
Bidders for the company had until today to submit their bids to the Strategic Rail Authority to run the service but one, FirstGroup failed to pre-qualify earlier this year.
Others in the running to take over the franchise are Arriva and GB Railways, parent company of Anglia Railways.
Today's announcement by National Express came with some details of the company's vision for Greater Anglia.
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Chief executive Phil White, said: "Rail passengers are rightly demanding ever higher quality from the rail services they use.
"Our vision for Greater Anglia is to create the UK's top performing train operating company. We have significant experience in integrating different rail businesses in to a single company and in performing robustly against demanding service measurements.
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"Now we hope to use our skills to deliver a quality passenger network for eastern England."
Although full details of the bid remain confidential, a few new features have been teased by National Express.
Mr White, said: "Following the success of Midland Mainline Customer Services Academy, we would definitely look at opening a similar staff training facility for this new franchise.
"We would also appoint a customer service director for the region as well as a director with responsibility for rural routes.
"Some of the passenger groups we met expressed a desire for high quality trains on the Norwich-London service so if awarded the franchise, we will be deploying Mark 3 rolling stock for this route, refurbished to a very high standard along with a new catering offer," Mr White added.
Weblink:
www.sra.gov.uk
