F Great Eastern
Established Member
Yes there have been two franchises who have gone like that.
National Express East Coast was the second highest bidder
GNER had other problems but they did overbid as the highest bidder.
So this means that there has been one company who offered the highest premium who had to default, and one who was the second highest premium who defaulted with around 20 others, some of which have also been the highest bidder, who have not defaulted.
The ECML was without doubt a problem, but if there was a serious problem with the way the DFT was going about it's tenders, I'd expect to see far more franchises going to the wall than there actually are. It seems Richard Branson is basing his idea that the highest bidder will go bust on GNER (who were ironically an incumbent) , seeing as National Express does not fit this criteria (for all their faults), despite the fact there are many more examples that prove the contrary.
National Express East Coast was the second highest bidder
GNER had other problems but they did overbid as the highest bidder.
So this means that there has been one company who offered the highest premium who had to default, and one who was the second highest premium who defaulted with around 20 others, some of which have also been the highest bidder, who have not defaulted.
The ECML was without doubt a problem, but if there was a serious problem with the way the DFT was going about it's tenders, I'd expect to see far more franchises going to the wall than there actually are. It seems Richard Branson is basing his idea that the highest bidder will go bust on GNER (who were ironically an incumbent) , seeing as National Express does not fit this criteria (for all their faults), despite the fact there are many more examples that prove the contrary.