Stagecoach wins railway franchise (BBC News)
 

Stagecoach is awarded a new seven-year contract to run services in the East Midlands.

More from BBC News...

Announced yesterday, GoVia will take over the remains of the Central & Silverlink franchises in November. They will call themselves 'London Midland'. Hmmm, where have i heard that before????:)

Expect fare increase and a reduction in service levels:mad:

CongraTulations Govia but Midland Mainline disapearing i shed more than a tear. Im gutted truely gutted. I cant imagine how the team feel.

And, in order to benefit the environment, one of Govia's stated intentions is to have reduced parking fees for drivers with low-emission cars and free parking for drivers with electric vehicles

Wouldn't it be better to offer these perks to the owners of "gas guzzlers" as an incentive for them to take the train? Surely these are the vehicles that should spend their days in a station car-park, not the environmently-friendly ones?

Then again I could put my cynical head on and accuse Govia of attempting to jump on the environmental bandwagon by coming up with a scheme that sounds good but isn't likely to cost them much in lost car-parking revenue. I'm not sure what criteria they will be using but I bet there aren't that many "low-emission" or electric cars in your average station car-park.