There would be no incentive for National Express Group to raise coach fares or reduce services in an attempt
“There would be no incentive for National Express Group to raise coach fares or reduce services in an attempt to force passengers from coach to rail.”The Greater Anglia franchise, which was awarded in January and which National Express started running in April, brings together the old Anglia, Great Eastern and West Anglia services including the London-Cambridge route. Marianne Fredericks, from the group, asked Mr Pidgley to “honour your commitment to the memorial park”.. The award of the £375m-a-year Greater Anglia franchise to National Express, the biggest rail and coach operator, has been cleared by the Competition Commission without any conditions. However, the watchdog yesterday gave provisional clearance, without conditions, subject to consultation.”The acquisition may not be expected to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in any of the areas we have been asked to look at,” said the inquiry chairman Paul Geroski. Some had even suggested that the award would be blocked, requiring the Strategic Rail Authority to re-tender the franchise. It’s best for him to do his thing and me to do mine.”The EGM itself was uneventful.
The only disquiet evident was the attendance of two people who were campaigning for a piece of unused Berkeley land, next to its development in Wapping, to be turned into a memorial site for civilians who died in the UK during the Second World War. Early yesterday, police found the body of a Westerner with blond hair which had been pulled from the Tigris river at Yethrib village, 40 miles north of Baghdad. He was tall, well built, had his hands tied behind his back and had been shot in the back of the head. The description does not match any of the Western hostages known to be held by kidnappers.And, of course, Iraqis suffer. The US Air Force has stepped up its policy of trying to assault insurgents from the air while the army avoids ground attacks that could lead to heavy US casualties. In this case, the air strikes were against a compound in the village of Fazat Shnetir 12 miles south of Fallujah. The US military said they had attacked a meeting of militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi planning fresh attacks on US forces.The residents of Fazat Shnetir were later seen digging mass graves to bury the bodies in groups of four.
A health ministry spokesman, Saad al-Amili, said that 44 people were killed and 27 injured in the Fallujah attacks with 17 children and two women among the wounded The floor of the Fallujah hospital was awash with blood. Relatives cried out with grief and called for vengeance.The truth about who is being killed by the US air strikes is difficult to ascertain exactly because Islamic militants make it very dangerous for journalists to go to places recently attacked. Bodies are buried quickly and wounded insurgents do not generally go to public hospitals. But, where the casualties can be checked, many of those who die or are injured have proved to be innocent civilians.The surge of violence in the past week is making it less likely there will be free elections in January as promised by George Bush. Elections themselves may not guarantee a way out of the quagmire. Should they not happen though, there are likely to be more weeks like these.* The family of a British engineer, kidnapped by gunmen from his house in Baghdad two days ago, pleaded for his safe return last night. Kenneth Bigley, believed to be 62 and married with one child, was seized with two other US colleagues by militants during a dawn raid.His family have been contacted by the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who explained to them what is being done “to resolve the situation”..
The mountains where the former warlord Izatullah Atif Rooz plans to build a $100m (£56m) mini-Switzerland, complete with ski slope and alpine chalets, were a killing ground just a few years ago. Seven hundred of my family and friends were killed,” he said. His tribe fought the Soviets, then the fundamentalist warlord Hekmatyar, then the Taliban.A canny man with a gentle manner and an immaculate white shalwar kameez, he knew nothing but fighting from the age of 19 until an old Afghan friend took him to Switzerland to see a different way of living. Some shareholders had also been uneasy about the seemingly unlimited nature of the potential payout, as it is not possible to say how much the rump company, which will remain listed, may be worth in six years. Mr Pidgley said that in discussions with shareholders, the odd institution had suggested that it [the incentive scheme] should be capped but not the majority.Answering a question from media after the EGM about whether he may work again with his son, also called Tony Pidgley – who used to sit on the Berkeley board and who last year made an unsuccessful takeover approach for the company – he said: “My son would be first to say that it is better for fathers and sons to be fathers and sons.
