Key London-Edinburgh train line re-privatised
London (AFP) - A consortium has won the franchise to run the railway from London to Edinburgh, the government said on Thursday, sparking a row over whether it should have stayed in public hands.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said Inter City Railways, a consortium of Stagecoach and Virgin Trains, would start operating the new, eight-year franchise on the East Coast Main Line in March.
They will pay around £3.3 billion ($5.2 billion, 4.2 billion euros) to the British government over the next eight years.
Virgin tycoon Richard Branson's company will have a 10-percent stake in the new operator.
The East Coast line has been in state hands since 2009, after a private operator was stripped of the franchise.
Transport unions and the opposition Labour Party fought to keep the line in the public sector, saying it had brought good returns to the state coffers -- more than £1 billion over the last five years.
But the government insisted it was a "fantastic deal for passengers and for staff" on a key north-south route.
"It gives passengers more seats, more services and new trains," said Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT transport workers' union, said the reprivatisation of the line was "a national disgrace and an act of utter betrayal".
Labour's transport spokesman Michael Dugher said taxpayers and commuters had been "sold down the river".
"It's absurd that our own public operator is the only rail company in the world that has been barred from challenging to run its own services."
Stagecoach and Virgin Trains already run the West Coast Main Line, which runs from London to Glasgow via Birmingham and Manchester.
The 393-mile (632-kilometre) long line links the English and Scottish capitals via Leeds, York, Durham and Newcastle.
