Route causes

Christopher Garnett, chief executive of Great North Eastern Railways, explains why they should retain the prized, money-making route and Sir Richard Branson trumpets his bid for the 20-year franchise on the east coast rail link and what Virgin Stagecoach will offer travellers.

Christopher Garnett

GNER is bidding for a new 20-year franchise. We have been running the

country's premier high speed rail services since April 1996. We have increased passenger numbers by 28 per cent. After four and a half years of successfully running the services we are entering the final stages of the process to secure a longer term.

Our exciting vision for the future is based on what our customers have been telling us.

We have listened and responded. The vision is realistic. It is ambitious, but achievable.

It is the result of three years of detailed planning and development, is fully costed and deliverable.

It is what Britain and the north of England says it wants.

And it will be delivered by GNER - a company with fantastic, committed people; strong links with the community and, importantly, with a proven track record of success, including a leading and award-winning reputation for customer service.

North Yorkshire already has a good rail service to London and Scotland.

We want to make it much better.

Our plans include:

n A major upgrade with Railtrack of the East Coast main line between London and Scotland, allowing many more trains to run and faster. Diversionary loops also create extra track capacity for freight trains, enabling many more lorries to be taken off the roads.

n A new fleet of modern, elegant, high speed 140mph tilting trains offering faster journey times, extra comfort and a range of new on-board facilities such as a shop and on-board entertainment.

n Major station improvements, including a doubling of car parking spaces, new lounges, new customer-friendly travel centres and easy access for disabled people.

n A seven-day-a-week, walk-up-and-go railway where train services are so

frequent you can almost throw away the timetable. Three trains an hour between York and London from 2005, for example - about 100 services a day - bringing more business to the region.

n Much faster journey times. York London, for example, would be reduced by at least ten minutes.

n Improved bus, rail and cycle links, as part of a package of seamless transport integration.

n Easier ticket purchase via the internet, self-service fastticket machines and our Newcastle-based national telesales operation.

n Three new parkway stations, making rail travel more accessible to

more people, and reducing long-distance car usage and associated pollution.

They would be built at prime locations near the motorway and trunk road network

n By 2007 all our fleet will either be new or fully refurbished

n More than 1,000 new jobs

The public support for our plans, and for what we have achieved to date, has been overwhelming, perhaps unprecedented in the rail industry.

In comparing the bids, the shadow Strategic Rail Authority will be asking big questions such as: Can it be delivered? Is it fundable? What are the competition issues? In Virgin Stagecoach's case, is it right that one single operator should control all three Anglo-Scottish franchises?

Importantly, we believe we can deliver substantial passenger benefits much earlier than any claimed by Virgin Stagecoach. GNER is a young, energetic company.

If we had failed over the past four years, we would deserve to lose a new franchise.

We haven't.

Indeed, we have been one of the few success stories of rail privatisation.

We have travelled a long way in a short space of time, but our journey is far from over.

We are the first to recognise what needs to be done, and are keen to get on and do it.

Sir Richard Branson

A decade ago, the East Coast route was Britain's premier railway. It still has the youngest fleet of Inter City trains in the UK. GNER boss Christopher Garnett accepts that he "inherited the cream of the British Rail crop", and no wonder.

That comment from the brochure promoting GNER's bid for a second franchise recognised that it was the only long-distance route to receive recent investment.

GNER inherited this wonderful legacy and have managed it competently. But one of the lessons of Hatfield for everybody must be that we develop a coherent vision for the medium and long term.

The Virgin Stagecoach bid for a 20-year East Coast franchise is designed to deliver substantial benefits from the outset within a coherent long term vision for the route.

The £7.4 billion of investment proposed is not jam tomorrow, but substantial benefits from the word go.

The Virgin Stagecoach bid delivers more customer benefits in the first ten years.

Let me explain how. Between 2003 and 2005, we will modify the existing 225 trains, adding a powerful diesel locomotive to each train.

This means we can run direct trains to London from places not currently electrified like Harrogate, Selby, Hull and Scarborough.

All these trains will be totally refurbished with completely rebuilt interiors to match our new trains on the West Coast & Cross Country which enter service from May next year.

Features will include ten channel digital audio at fabulous new seats, new passenger information systems and a self service shop. This is not an empty promise - the first of our new trains are built. We are going to introduce a new fleet of super trains on the East Coast called Super Vitesse, capable of operation over a high-speed line.

These trains will initially be capable of at least 140 mph and will be able to cover the journey from London to York on the existing railway quicker than the tilting trains proposed by GNER.

While we support Railtrack's plans to upgrade the East Coast, we will not be wasting money on tilting trains. Unlike our West Coast railway which has many curves, the East Coast is a fundamentally straight railway. There are no curves south of York where tilt gives any real benefit. Not only this, Railtrack admit that GNER's new tilting trains could constrain future growth from York to London.

The main problem on the East Coast is overcrowding and it's getting worse. We therefore propose to build 120 miles of new line to relieve the bottleneck. York will be 90 minutes from London, Newcastle two hours and Edinburgh just over three.

It is capable of being delivered by 2010 but don't just take our word; Bechtel, the US Construction company building the High Speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link to great acclaim endorse this timescale.

Britain gave railways to the world. York was the cradle. We want to put Britain at the forefront again and get people out of airplanes, cars and coaches and back on what should be the most safe, comfortable, reliable and quickest form of surface transport in Britain.

To get Yorkshire right up there with the best we would retain the HQ of our East Coast operation in York. Unlike GNER's owners we would give Christopher Garnett and his team the vision and resources they need to fulfil the ambitions of every traveller up and down the East Coast route.