Virgin loses West Coast franchise to FirstGroup

摘要

FirstGroup is to take over the West Coast franchise from December 2012, having pipped Virgin Trains to the post in a franchise competition. First will pay £5.5bn in premiums over the lifetime of the contract, which will last for up to 15 years, relying on ticket revenues rising by 10 per cent annually in order to fund the payments. The deal will see First introduce new electric trains, in addition to the 106 new Pendolino cars already on order, and cut the cost of its Standard Anytime fares by an average of 15 per cent.