Virgin East Coast and "Cross default"

[Mr Bunt]

Have I missed something by not reading the right newspapers? The last time the ECML franchise went pear shaped it was held by National Express and they lost the Greater Anglia franchise as a result of what was called "cross default". Has Branson got some kind of pull that National Express haven't - nobody seems to have been teling him to give the WCML franchise back!

[JASd17]

Does the fact that Branson 'virtually' only loaned the name to the East Coast franchise help? It was around 10% of the deal to use the name I think?

Newspapers, what the h**k are they?

John

[Dave]

John,
You are correct that the Virgin group has a 10% stake and Stagecoach has a 90% stake in the franchise, but from my contact within Virgin, when I queried the ownership, said that Bransons wife owns 39% of Stagecoach, so in total they seem to have a 49% stake in the outfit. I was also told they owe £200 million to the exchequer in back payments etc.

[53C]

From the above with Virgin owing the exchequer would this be something to do with the fact that Yorkshire Bank group are trying to buy The Virgin Building Soc group.? Raise some cash.?

[Mickey]

Branson was on BBC radio 4 earlier in the week talking about two separate transportations projects that he's involved with.

Project number one Mr Branson is hoping to be a 'space tourist' later this year by flying on a Virgin rock into outer space and back again to earth (he hopes?).

Project number two Mr Branson and his team of scientists are developing a new form of transportation whereby people could travel from London to Edinburgh or Edinburgh to London in ONE HOUR travelling at 700 mph!!. To me it sounds a bit like Brunel's atmospheric railway whereby passengers would travel in a carriage along a continuous tunnel which could be laid on the surface and not necessarily sunk in tunnels to save costs. Apparently this project is going to happen in India and Dubia in the next year or two.

[JASd17]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for putting me straight on the Branson involvement question. That makes things a touch more clear.

Let's hope a certain cricket team can see tomorrow. Off to the cricket with brother Woodward, a birthday treat?

John

[Dave]

Enjoy the cricket with the esteemed Mr Woodward.