Trenitalia’s purchase of c2c confirmed

Trenitalia has completed the £72.6 million purchase of c2c from National Express, after receiving approval from the Department for Transport.

The franchise will run until November 2029. FS Italiane, the parent company of the Group, in its function as guarantor with the DfT, has paid the vendor an extra £35m to settle an existing inter-company loan granted to the franchisee, and in which it now acts as a lender.

The Italian company plans to introduce ticket technologies that it uses in Italy, and says c2c will continue to be led by Managing Director Julian Drury.

Trenitalia CEO Barbara Morgante said: “We can now immediately start to concentrate on the day-to-day business of c2c. Under the leadership of Julian Drury, we will continue to focus on delivering the outstanding service that helped make c2c the best performing operator in the UK, and we will collaborate with the management to introduce further improvements.”

The deal means NX, which once operated nine franchises simultaneously, no longer has a presence in the rail industry.