This situation offers a tremendous opportunity of how a people’s railway could be run.”

Mr Grayling has said he will either put the inter-city franchise into public control through an operator of last resort - a consortium led by Arup - or negotiate a short-term deal with the Virgin East Coast, which is owned 90% by transport giant Stagecoach. “We have now been advised by the Department for Transport that the Secretary of State for Transport plans to announce today that he intends to appoint the “Operator of Last Resort” to operate the InterCity East Coast trains services,” Stagecoach said in a statement on Wednesday. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told the House of Commons back in February that the franchise would only be able to continue in its current form for a “very small number of months” as Stagecoach had “got its numbers wrong” and “overbid”. Vigrin Trains East Coast was awarded the franchise to run trains for eight years in 2014 but the private operators have since complained of losing money on the line between London and Edinburgh.
The British government renationalises the Virgin Trains East Coast-operated East Coast Main Line. The Department for Transport will run the rail service until 2020.