Office of Fair Trading Investigates UK Rail Franchise

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating the recent franchise awarded to the National Express Group to run the new InterCity rail route from London to Scotland.

According to the The Sunday Telegraph the inquiry is investigating potential dominance of both coach and rail services between London, the North East and Scotland.

The £600m a year deal was awarded last week when the UK based National Express Group beat off stiff competition from major transport companies including Virgin.

In a statement issued today the OFT said: "It is likely to consider the award of the East Coast Franchise and will be obtaining information for investigation from third parties in September."

A National Express Group spokeswoman said: "We do not believe there are any competition issues. The real competition on this route is cars and low-cost airlines."

The franchise was put out to tender last year after the US parent company of British rail firm GNER ran into financial difficulty.

The route, which has been described as the UK's premier intercity railway is expected to link London with Scotland via Peterborough, Leeds, Doncaster, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness and will be called National Express East Coast.

Reported by Ozge Ibrahim