Three months ago, the East Coast Main Line service returned to public control. Business Editor Owen McAteer spoke to the woman in charge of getting it back on track.

HOPEFULLY it will be third time lucky for the region’s major rail connection to London when it goes back into private hands next year.

If the best deal for the East Coast Main Line service is to be realised in that relatively short time, then Karen Boswell will play a pivotal role.

Ms Boswell is the managing director of East Coast, the arm’s-length company the Government set up to run the franchise after National Express handed it back in November last year.

Although she is upbeat about the prospects for the East Coast service, there is no doubt that restoring the image of the railways in the public’s mind will be a challenge.

The failure by National Express to make the service profitable – indeed, it lost millions on it – was the second failure in less than three years.

In 2007, National Express agreed to pay the Government £1.4bn in so-called premium payments over the duration of an eight-year contract, after GNER said it could no longer afford to run the route.

This was despite the fact GNER had promised £1m less than National Express when it renewed its contract for a further seven years in 2005, after successfully running the service since 1996.

Under private ownership, the franchise is sub-let by the Department for Transport (DfT) allowing private operators to compete to run it.

Operators pay the Government premium payments for the privilege of operating trains.

National Express based its ability to do this on significantly increasing passenger numbers, which, to be fair, it achieved over its first year before the economic downturn hit.

Now the challenge of increasing passenger numbers once more falls to East Coast.

In its favour is the fact we are coming out of recession.

Against it is the perception passengers may now have of the operation.

Ms Boswell said: “This is a good business and in the next two years we want to make sure it will go back into the private market in better shape than today. We have some very clear plans to do that.

“I am absolutely determined to make this a great business.”

Ms Boswell is now three months into that two-year plan, and is confident that it is so far, so good.

She said: “I think it is going really well. I have been really pleased with the response we have had from stakeholders, passengers and particularly staff.

“We have a clear agenda for the next two years, £17m of investment which will focus on a lot of areas that will make a difference to passengers.”

One of the major benefits East Coast will enjoy is not being hampered by the same level of premium payments which dragged National Express down.

Ms Boswell said: “I have got the same responsibilities as any other franchise holder but our premium payment is significantly different.”

A key market the service will need to win back is the business traveller.

An economic downturn meant fewer people were making journeys south for meetings and business.

Now the climate is improving, winning their loyalty could play a major part in the future success of the line.

Ms Boswell said: “We are focusing on the business market, they are an immensely important market for us.

“We forecast 40 per cent growth in the next ten years from the business market. We have to make sure we provide faster journey times.”

Unsurprisingly, she believed using the railways was an obvious choice for commuters.

Ms Boswell said: “A fast journey time of two hours 50 minutes on board one of our trains with wi-fi and you get a catering service.

“It is a fantastic way to travel down to London and you are ready for your business meeting in a much more calm and relaxed manner.”

Little extras have already been added in the hope of enticing people back into the first class carriages.

National Express had suffered partly because of a decline in business passengers using first class as the recession hit.

In December, East Coast announced improvements, including free cake, following feedback from customers who had traditionally used the first class service on National Express.

They had expressed disappointment that complimentary snacks had been whittled down to the point where they only got tea and biscuits.

Of course, all the free cake in the world will not make up for what is most important to business travellers – reliability and speed of service.

The make-or-break change East Coast is introducing will be the Eureka programme, which promises more seats, more services and faster journeys from the North East.

If it works out, a journey from Darlington to London could be 27 minutes quicker, from Durham 12 minutes quicker and from Newcastle up to 32 minutes less.

It will mean an average journey time from Newcastle to London of less than three hours.

The trains will also depart at the same time within the hour, and will make better use of track space on the line to provide more services.

The timetable will be implemented in 16 months, only months ahead of any proposed privatisation.

Ms Boswell said: “Eureka provides two million extra seats a year, so this timetable change is one of the most significant changes.

“It delivers 25 extra services a week, 9,000 seats a week – that is a massive increase by any standard.”

Ms Boswell also believed it was important to get the message out to travellers that the service has changed.

She said: “In the last months of National Express they hadn’t invested in the same way on marketing and advertising. I have just signed off a very significant marketing campaign at the end of February.”

A potential problem is that if there is a dramatic improvement in the service while it is under public control, some will ask why privatise it again?

Indeed in July last year, MPs in a Commons debate called for the line to remain in public hands for 15 years.

But at that time Rail Minister Chris Mole said: “The Government’s role in running trains is short-term.

This was an isolated failure.”

Ms Boswell too is adamant that privatisation would go ahead.

What she believed East Coast could achieve in the next two years was to set a standard for private franchise owners to follow.

She said: “We can help shape the future franchises.

“It will go back into private ownership.

“I am absolutely determined to hand it back in great shape and my wish is those people will continue to build on that.”