According to Tony Miles (of Modern Railways magazine 'fame'), one of the 3 franchise winners is to be announced tomorrow.
Tony Miles (on uk.railway) said:According to a number of sources one of the three franchises up for grabs
will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9.30.
The information is confidential at the moment but the winners and losers
will have been phoned during this evening (Tuesday) - so those with mates at
the senior end of any of the bidders should maybe make some calls. (The
winner is someone who already operates at least one other TOC, so no new
entrants this time round...)