The wrangle over the future of the East Coast Main Line took a twist today with a shock announcement by John Prescott.

He revealed that GNER's bid to keep the franchise for the key route from York to London must suffer another delay - and that a new joint venture for upgrading the route was to be launched.

York-based Railtrack is to work in a new joint venture with the Strategic Rail Authority and whichever company wins the franchise to take forward the upgrade.

York-based GNER and Virgin - the two companies who have been locked in a bitter battle for the franchise - have until April 17 to respond to the new arrangement.

The franchise process has already been hit by extensive delays.

But GNER chief executive Christopher Garnett claimed the company simply had to clear one more hurdle before a final franchise victory.

"We will willingly clear the final hurdle and expect a Government announcement on the preferred bidder before the General Election," he said.

The announcements come by coincidence on the day GNER launched a daring offer to get passengers back on its trains after the disruption caused by the Hatfield crash.

It is offering passengers from York the chance to travel to London for just a fiver - with a return ticket costing a tenner.

Worth more than £2 million in savings to passengers over 11 days, GNER says the promotion is the "greatest thing in rail travel since the Rocket".

More than 120,000 standard seats are available for travel from Monday, April 23, to Thursday, May 3. Tickets are subject to availability and must be pre-booked at stations along the GNER route, or by telephone through GNER's telesales centre on 08457 46 46 37.

GNER suffered a blow today when it lost its bid to run the South West Trains route. The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) said the new franchise to would go to the present operators, Stagecoach.

The deputy Prime Minister said he was bringing forward the release of £1.5 billion to help Railtrack improve the rail network.

Railtrack announced that it would not be taking up its option to build phase two of the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link.

The SRA said today that the upgrade would include an alternative freight route between York and Doncaster and construction of a new platform at Kings Cross, both by 2006.

Updated: 14:01 Monday, April 02, 2001