LORD Adonis has said he hopes the Government’s controversial £2bn ‘bail out’ of the East Coast rail franchise can be reversed.
The Labour Party peer spoke out during a visit to the region where he met County Durham MPs Phil Wilson and Roberta Blackman-Woods.
Last year, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling decided last year to cut short the contract given to Stagecoach and Virgin, with a new public/private East Coast Partnership taking over the running route of the route in 2020.
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Speaking at Durham Railway Station, on Friday afternoon, Lord Adonis said: “Bailing out Richard Branson and Brian Souter will cost the taxpayer in the North-East hundreds of millions of pounds and that money could have been spent improving the infrastructure to provide better services and ease congestion.
“Instead, all this money is going into the coffers of two if the richest companies in the world, Virgin and Stagecoach.”