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Waiting at Newcastle Central for his east coast main line train to Berwick-upon-Tweed, David Brown, Gambling Commission member, sums up the dilemma faced by National Express (LSE: NEX.L - news) .

"They chose to gamble and lost."

At the station's advanced ticket counters is a snaking queue of customers; they too have gambled, calculating that a long wait will pay off with a greatly reduced fare. A sign advertises a weekly allocation of 78,000 such tickets to York at £6.25 ($10.3).

Round the corner, Liz Peck, a senior business analyst, clutches her £101 first class York return ticket. She shows little surprise that National Express has hit the buffers on the flagship east coast line.

"It's not as busy now in first class," she says. Recently, leaving King's Cross on a Friday teatime her first class carriage had only three travellers.

Her observation is echoed outside the station by the taxi drivers who each pay National Express £1,700 a year for the right to pick up passengers.

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The service to London from York is frequent and fast. Yet by booking 12 weeks ahead, passengers can travel this route with National Express for just £19 return, second class. "It's just absurd", Ms Peck says.

The frequency of trains gives Richard Mellor, a director of Night Freight GB, a logistics and delivery business, pause for thought: "It's very convenient for the traveller, but how do they make ends meet? Well, they don't."

For north-east England's economy and its business community, the importance of this route is immense.

Rail offers the winning combination of convenience, speed and the chance of uninterrupted work while travelling. By leaving Newcastle at about 6am one can be in London, almost 300 miles south, in less than three hours.

Mike Waterston, co-founder and managing director of Waterstons, the IT consultancy, says the renewed uncertainty about this route is "very distressing". A consistent and reliable service is vital, he says: "A driving point behind an economy is that the infrastructure is good, whether road or rail."

James Ramsbotham, north-east Chamber of Commerce chief executive, says the big issue is whether this route is seen as a revenue raiser for the government or a vital transport link. "It has to be a high-quality public transport service first, and a revenue raiser second," he says.

At Newcastle Central there are mixed views about nationalisation, but there is consistent support for the view that the east coast service is better than 20 years ago.

"People do lose sight of the fact things do improve," says Gill Jones, a retired careers adviser. "We are a nation of whingers."

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