Inter City East Coast Bid

National Express Group PLC
06 June 2007


                           National Express Group PLC

             Submission of bid for Inter City East Coast franchise


National Express Group ('the Group') has today submitted its bid to the
Department for Transport ('DfT') to run the prestigious Inter City East Coast
rail franchise.

Commenting on the submission, Richard Bowker, Chief Executive, National Express
Group said: 'We are delighted to submit our bid for this prestigious franchise,
the culmination of over six months' work. In preparing our submission, the bid
team has undertaken extensive customer research, stakeholder consultation and
financial analysis. We also encouraged stakeholders along the route to tell us
what they want from the franchise through our www.youreastcoast.co.uk website.
It received more than 16,000 visits from a wide range of audiences including
local authorities, MPs, MSPs, business, tourism and transport organisations.
Throughout the consultation process, we have been impressed by the passion that
the people and communities served by the East Coast services have for their rail
services.

'We have extensive experience of operating railways. Not only do we run
Britain's best performing inter city train operation, Midland Mainline, but, as
confirmed by the rail industry National Passenger Rail Survey released
yesterday, Midland Mainline continues to be top for overall customer
satisfaction amongst long distance train operators.

'We look forward to the next stage of the bid. We believe we can deliver a truly
world class railway for the East Coast.'

Feedback on the ICEC bid is expected over the summer with the new franchise
commencing 9th December 2007.

                                    - ENDS -


For further information, please contact:

Nicola Marsden/Alison Flynn
National Express Group PLC                                    020 7529 2000


Notes to Editors:

• National Express Group PLC is one of the largest operator of train
  franchises in the UK with six rail franchises; c2c, Central Trains, Gatwick
  Express, Midland Mainline, 'one' including Stansted Express and Silverlink. 
  The Trains Division has a revenue of £1,497.2m and employs 10,000 people.

• National Express Group has recently submitted bids for the new East
  Midlands and Cross Country franchises. These two new franchises, which have 
  been remapped from the existing Cross Country, Midland Mainline and Central 
  Trains franchises, will be awarded by the Department for Transport in the 
  summer and are scheduled to commence in November 2007.

• Full results of the Spring 2007 wave of the National Passenger Survey are 
  available to download from: www.passengerfocus.org.uk/nps



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