Passengers Face Two Years of Lame Duck National Express Rail Franchise

12.29.00pm GMT Mon 7th Dec 2009

A call has been made for National Express to lose its East Anglia rail franchise immediately, not to wait for two years. The Government announced that the NXEA franchise (affecting services from Chelmsford to London and to Norfolk) would end three years early. Stephen Robinson, Liberal Democrats Parliamentary candidate for Chelmsford, said: "This is a curious decision in danger of satisfying nobody.

"The Government is formally declaring National Express a lame duck franchise while telling passengers that they're going to have to put up with them for another two years. Clearly, the Government's intention is to end National Express's involvement in the rail network.

"What hope is there that National Express will deliver a decent service when they know the end is in sight?

"Ironically, only this week the results of a commuters survey by Liberal Democrats in Chelmsford, found that people would rather stay in Chelmsford to work than commuting elsewhere, even if that meant taking a cut in salary. With this poor level of management by government it is not difficult to see why people would want to avoid rail commuting.

"The Government should either have left matters alone or preferably taken these franchises back into the public sector as soon as possible, pending re-tendering."

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Other recent news about Chelmsford train services: www.chelmsford-libdems.org.uk/railways