Let the train go down the drain - West Coast Franchise Is Thrown Off Track

West Coast Franchise Is Thrown Off Track
Sky News – 9 minutes ago

The decision to award the West Coast Main Line franchise to FirstGroup has been cancelled due to flaws in the way the process was conducted.
The decision was announced by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
It means the Department for Transport (DfT) will no longer be awarding a franchise contract to run the West Coast service when the current franchise expires in December.
FirstGroup was due to take over the running of the London to Scotland line after being awarded the contract by the DfT in August, but Virgin Rail, which currently runs the service, launched a High Court challenge against the decision.
The DfT said it would be no longer contesting the judicial review sought by Sir Richard Branson's company.
Mr McLoughlin has also ordered two independent reviews into the competition process.
The flaws uncovered by the DfT relate to the way the procurement was conducted by department officials, it said.
It said the flaws stemmed from the way the level of risk in the bids was evaluated.
Mistakes were made in the way in which inflation and passenger numbers were taken into account and how much money bidders were then asked to guarantee as a result, the DfT added.
An announcement is expected to be made later about the suspension of Government staff while the investigations are conducted.
The Government said it was "resolving urgently" the future arrangements for operation of the West Coast service - which was due to be handed over to FirstGroup on December 9.
Mr McLoughlin said: "I have had to cancel the competition for the running of the West Coast franchise because of deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable mistakes made by my department in the way it managed the process."
He added: "West Coast passengers can rest assured that while we seek urgently to resolve the future arrangements the trains that run now will continue to run, with the same drivers, the same staff and timetables as planned.
"The tickets that people have booked will continue to be valid and passengers will be able to make their journeys as planned."
The Government has also paused all the other outstanding franchise competitions (Great Western, Essex Thameside and Thameslink) pending the independent reviews.

bb1 wrote:Oh my! That was a most peculiar decision from the start....

bb1 wrote:It's a bit like me offering to pay a million pounds for a house, and you offering £900,00 - but after I'd moved in, not actually stumping up the money...

But in this case, you, ie Branson, said, Oy, wait a minute, she hasn't got a million quid to pay for the house....

bb1 wrote:I have never, ever, known such a shower of incompetent chancers as the current Westminster government

bb1 wrote:Well, I don't really regard Westminster as 'my' government, LL

Virgin Trains Secures West Coast Extension
Sky News – 12 minutes ago

Virgin Trains has agreed to continue running the West Coast Main Line for up to 13 months while the government resolves the flawed process that saw FirstGroup initially awarded the franchise.
The temporary agreement was proposed by the Department for Transport (DfT) after its embarrassing U-turn earlier this month when it admitted it got its sums wrong in its decision to give the business to FirstGroup.
Virgin's current franchise is due to end on December 9 but it has agreed to remain as operator while a competition is run for an interim franchise agreement.
Sir Richard Branson had led a campaign against the initial award to FirstGroup, claiming the 13 year deal would likely bankrupt the company, resulting in a legal challenge .
After discovering the errors and withdrawing the contract on October 3, the DfT later apologised to-then Transport Secretary Justine Greening who had sought repeated assurances from officials that the bid calculations were correct.
Three civil servants were suspended when the " significant technical flaws " came to light and a review process begun.
Patrick McLoughlin, who replaced Ms Greening in a Cabinet re-shuffle said today: "The cancellation of the InterCity West Coast franchise is deeply regrettable and I apologise to the bidders involved and taxpayers who have a right to expect better.
"My priority now is to fix the problem and the first step is to take urgent action to ensure that on December 9 services continue to run to the same standard and passengers are not affected.
The RMT transport union had wanted the West Coast franchise to be run by the DfT in the public sector, as is the case at the moment with the East Coast franchise.
RMT leader Bob Crow said: "This announcement is no surprise. The Government are ideologically opposed to public ownership of the railways and, in collusion with the private train operators, have stitched up a shabby deal that will enable them to rerun the whole franchise fiasco in a year's time.
"Richard Branson and his shareholders are laughing all the way to the bank, he said."

bb1 wrote:Oh, what a surprise! Tens of millions of taxpayers' money down the toilet, and we are back where we started.

Did I ever tell you I loathe this particular Westminster government?