Trenitalia UK Ltd, FS Italiane Group, and FirstGroup plc are pleased to announce that they will bid together for the East Midlands and West Coast Partnership rail franchise competitions announced by the British Department for Transport (DfT).

First Trenitalia East Midlands Rail Limited is the joint venture between FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia UK (30%), which has today submitted an expression of interest to the DfT in respect of the East Midlands rail franchise competition.

The next East Midlands franchise will start in 2018 and will encompass major infrastructure enhancements and improvements in the franchise area. The main routes of the line are London – Derby – Sheffield, London – Nottingham, London – Corby, Liverpool – Sheffield – Nottingham – Norwich, in addition to regional services.

The West Coast Partnership franchise combines the current InterCity West Coast services between London-Manchester-Chester-Liverpool-Preston-Edinburgh-Glasgow, with the development and introduction of High Speed 2 services from London to Birmingham. The new franchise will be responsible for services on both the West Coast Main Line from 2019 and designing and running the initial high speed services from 2026. The franchise will run for the first three to five years of operation of HS2. Trenitalia will bid also for this franchise together with First, the expression of interest is expected for April 2017.

Both Trenitalia and FirstGroup hold 'Pre-Qualification Questionnaire Passports' with DfT Rail Executive which shows that they have satisfied basic financial and other competence criteria and allows them to submit franchise bids to Government. In December 2015, Trenitalia became the first new entrant to be awarded a PQQ Passport by the Department for Transport and since then is pursuing a number of franchise opportunities.

In January 2017 Trenitalia UK reached an in principle agreement with National Express to acquire the c2c franchise for 70 million pound. The c2c line operates from East London to Shoeburyness, on the Essex coast.

Commenting, Barbara Morgante, CEO of Trenitalia, said: “We believe that the experience, competence, innovation and skills of our two companies, developed in international markets, represents a perfect mix to vie for these challenging bids. Trenitalia, in particular is ready to bring all its competencies, both from a technical and commercial side, developed in the highly competitive Italian market.  Our proposal will be driven by our highly customer focused vision. Our recent agreement-in-principle for the acquisition of c2c also serves to transform us from a potential new comer into a convincing, and effective, player in the UK market, and will strengthen the Trenitalia-First partnership.

"This partnership is a second milestone in our plan to expand in the UK rail passenger market, in line with the internationalisation plans of the entire FS Italiane Group.”