In the last 11 years passengers travelling between London and York, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh have been carried by five different train operators as the above image shows. Virgin Trains East Coast was the third east coast mainline intercity franchised train operator to “fail” in that time. On 24 June 2018 the government replaced it with an outsourced operator under its control. The question for the government, rail industry, staff and, most importantly, passengers, is can a fourth be prevented? Photo montage of tweets and logos by Jerry Alderson