The Department for Transport announced on 20 February 2007 the parties that have qualified as Bidders for the Intercity East Coast (ICEC) franchise. They are:
* Arriva Trains East Coast Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arriva Trains Limited. The ultimate parent company is Arriva plc
* First London, Scottish and North East Railways Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Rail Holdings Ltd. The ultimate parent company is FirstGroup plc
* inter city - railways limited, a 50/50 joint venture between Stagecoach Group plc and the Virgin Group of Companies.
* NXEC Trains Limited, wholly owned subsidiary of National Express Group plc

DfT issued an advertisement in December 2006 inviting Expressions of Interest in the franchise. Short listed bidders will be asked to bid against a specification based on DfT proposals and the responses to a recent public consultation which closed on 15th February 2007.

The winner of the competition will be announced in Summer 2007 and it is anticipated that the new ICEC franchise will be in place in late Autumn 2007.

The term of the new franchise is a maximum of 7 years and 5 months, the last 17 months being dependent on the franchisee achieving performance targets.

Notes
1. The ICEC franchise operation comprises the running of regular services between London Kings Cross, Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, with some services extending to Inverness, Aberdeen, Hull, Bradford, Skipton and Harrogate
2. It was announced on 15 December 2006 that the Government entered into a temporary Management Agreement with the current operator, Great North Eastern Railways (GNER) to continue to operate the franchise until the commencement date of the new franchise
3. Proposals for the service specification recently consulted upon include:
* Timetable: Existing services will remain, and a regular half hourly service between London - Leeds will be included
* Fares: Will be set in a manner consistent with Government policy
* Smartcards: It is proposed that the winner of the competition will put in place a smart ticketing system across the franchise area and examine opportunities to offer passengers new ticketing products
4. For further information please visit http://www.dft.gov.uk, where the competition documents, consultation and guidance on railway franchising procurement processes can be found.