THE c2c rail franchise is set to be sold off to an Italian company for £70million.

The line, which runs from Shoebury to London Fenchurch Street, will be taken over by Trenitalia if the deal gets the green lights from the Department for Transport. The sale is expected to go through in the next three to four weeks.

The line is currently the last National Express rail franchise in Britain.

Trenitalia, a passenger rail firm which is part of FS Italiane Group, and c2c have not yet announced any planned changes - with bosses insisting the sale “won’t affect day-to-day services.”

Peter Slattery, from Southend Rail Travellers Association, said: “Will there be any change? Will they pour lots of money into it? The answer is no. They will be looking to make a profit and I very much doubt they will pour millions into it. The biggest change we can expect is of their uniform.”

Rail union RMT revealed 28 private rail contracts in the UK - or 70 per cent - are now partially or wholly owned by foreign states or their railways.

Tim Aker, Ukip MEP for the East of England, said: “All essential UK infrastructure and services should be kept in the hands of the UK government or of a British company.

“C2C has its failings. It needs to be more responsive to customer feedback and more accountable. It is, however, not as bad as some other train lines in the UK. I do worry now that services may change, prices may soar and we see even less accountability.”

Julian Drury, c2c managing director, said: “Trenitalia have reached an in principle agreement with National Express Group to acquire the c2c franchise, subject to final approval.

“While this change won’t affect day-to-day services, Trenitalia have told us how excited they are to serve the people of south Essex and east London, and that they are looking to build on our existing plans for improving the future service.”

Barbara Morgante, CEO of Trenitalia, hopes the c2c line is the first of a number of British franchises for the company.

She said: “We’re extremely delighted to have this exciting opportunity to begin our experience in the UK starting from the consistently best performing c2c line.

“We will work closely with customers to apply our vision and deliver improvements that will be visible and valuable. We are confident they will benefit from our skill and capabilities developed in the highly competitive Italian market.

“We are also closely monitoring the Railways Franchising Programme as we intend to participate in tenders issued by the Department for Transport to strengthen our presence in UK.”

The main train operator of Italy

TRENITALIA is a passenger rail transportation company and is part of the FS Italiane Group.

It is the main rail operator in Italy and is owned by the Italian Government. FS Group runs 8,000 trains a day, serving 600 million passengers and carrying 50million tonnes of goods a year - over a network exceeding16,000 kilometers.

Trenitalia is one of Europe’s top railway operators, and manages passenger transport with its long haul connections.

It also runs haulage trains on high speed and conventional lines, as well as regional and metropolitan services.

In 2015, Trenitalia became one of the first operators to receive a PQQ Passport from the Department for Transport – a process designed to stream-line the tendering process and make it easier for companies to bid for multiple franchises without duplicating paperwork.

New timetable is chaos for commuters

TRAIN company c2c introduced a new timetable on Monday...but it hasn’t gone down well with commuters.

Katy Treverton, from Westcliff, said: “For me the latest change means that my morning train will be formed of four carriages, instead of the eight it used to be. It will miss six stations along the route into Fenchurch Street, yet will now take one minute longer.

“I actually don’t even know how c2c have managed to achieve this.”

A spokesman for c2c said: “We are very pleased with how the new timetable has operated so far. While it is still early days, passenger numbers are relatively evenly spread and the service is working very well operationally.

“We now run more carriages when most people are travelling, including seven successive 12 car trains from Westcliff which arrive into London between 7.45am and 8.45am. To achieve this we have moved some carriages from quieter trains that arrive after 9am.

“We have also withdrawn some stops from this train to ensure it does not become too crowded, but we will continue to review how well each service is operating over the coming weeks.”