TRAIN operator National Express should be forced to give up its East Anglian services, Colchester MP Bob Russell has said.

The company will hand control of the East Coast Main Line to the Government at 11.59pm on Friday, the Department for Transport announced yesterday.

The franchise for services between London and Edinburgh will transfer to public operator, Directly Operated Railways, a month earlier than expected.

But Mr Russell accused National Express of “cherry picking” and said it should be forced to hand over its other lines, c2c, from Southend to London, and East Anglia, which runs trains between Norwich and London.

He said: “All three franchises should be surrendered, because I think it is in breach of the spirit of railway privatisation, which I am opposed to anyway.

“If they have failed with one line, they shouldn’t be allowed to cherry pick the ones they want to keep.”

National Express gave up the loss-making East Coast franchise, after paying too much to run services on it in 2007.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said it would be a “travesty” if National Express was now allowed to keep its East Anglia and c2c routes.

But Derek Monnery, from the Essex Rail Users Federation, said services had improved.

He added: “National Express has got significantly better. There are still areas that should be tightened up, particularly with regard to cleanliness.

“Reliability, on the whole, is better than it has been since I started travelling by rail 25 years ago.”