National Express wins East Coast franchise

By Dan Lalor

LONDON (Reuters) - Bus and train operator National Express Group said on Tuesday it had won the InterCity East Coast rail franchise and promised better reliability, more trains and easier ways to buy tickets.

Shares in National Express, which has recently lost several lucrative franchises, were up 1.4 percent at 1,163 pence by 9:30 a.m. to be one of the top gainers among London's top 350 stocks.

The East Coast franchise, which covers services connecting London with Scotland via Peterborough, Leeds and Newcastle, will start on December 9 and run until March 31, 2015, with the last 17 months conditional on performance levels being reached.

Finance Director Adam Walker told reporters redevelopment of the area around the line's London terminus at King's Cross, including a new station for Eurostar services from Europe, would boost travel and revenues, as should the 2012 Olympics.

National Express, which also runs 14,000 school buses in North America and has a bus and coach business in Spain, forecast annual revenue of 600 million pounds from the franchise in its first full year.

Regulated fares can rise by an average of 1 percent above the RPI measure of inflation over the life of the franchise, while unregulated fares can rise by an average of 2.1 percent above RPI.

The Department for Transport said it would receive payments with a net present value of 1.4 billion pounds over the life of the franchise.

Goldman Sachs said in a broker note: "Looking at the detail, the subsidy to premium profile of the bid looks less aggressive than other recent franchise bids.