WEST COAST LINE FRANCHISE CANCELLED

The Government has cancelled the controversial franchise award of the West Coast mainline rail route to First Group after admitting it made serious errors during the selection process.

The mistakes emerged as Whitehall officials prepared to defend a legal case brought by Virgin – which was out-bid by First Group for the rights to offer the services from London to Glasgow and Manchester, including Macclesfield, for the next 13 years.

The competitive process will now be re-run and all previous bidders will have their costs re-reimbursed, a bill that is likely to cost the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds.



In a statement the Department for Transport said it had unearthed “significant technical flaws” in the way the franchise process was conducted.

It added: “The flaws uncovered relate to the way the procurement was conducted by department officials. An announcement will be made later today concerning the suspension of staff while an investigation takes place.”



Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that despite the problems passengers will continue to be served by the same trains and front line staff.



He has also ordered two independent reviews to be undertaken urgently: the first into what went wrong with the West Coast competition and the lessons to be learned, the second into the wider DfT rail franchise programme, both overseen by leading business figures.



As a result of the West Coast situation all other franchise competitions Great Western, Essex Thameside and Thameslink – have been halted.