It seems there is one hell of a messup at Whitehall as the franchise to operate the trains on the West Coast Main Line (Linking London Euston, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Stafford, Crewe, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster and Glasgow) is thrown into question.
The service currently operated by Virgin Trains (trading as Virgin West Coast Trains) has been in situ for the pat 14 years, and was recently re-franchised to FirstGroup (who operate First Great Western, First Captial Connect, First Hull Trains, First ScotRail, First Transpenine Express, and Heathrow Connect) to a chorus of dismay and cries of foul play from Virgin Rail
There was also an independent e-petition raised to stop this (to no avail as the transport minister of the day was happy enough with FirstGroup and its numbers).
However, breaking at Midnight was a story that someone in Whitehall had done their numbers wrong – seriously wrong to the point where the current competition to run the service has been suspended, and a new race to be run due to technical flaws in the way the franchise process was conducted.
As such, FirstGroup will NOT be taking on the West Coast Main Line on the 9th of December, and conveniently, the Department of Transport ducks a judicial review by Virgin Trains.
Services will continue on the West Coast until the new franchisee is selected with the same trains and same front line staff. All tickets remain valid.
Apparently, the flaws stem 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. As such, the Department for Transport cannot be confident that these flaws would not have changed the outcome of the competition or that any of the four bidders would not have chosen to submit different offers.
And for those who travel, we’re back to square one when it comes to train travel and funding train travel.
Again.
One thing that will be operating bar an operational emergency is the Star MegaDO Flight!
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It’s nice to see Virgin West Coast will last at least a little longer, they run an excellent service and have transformed the line during their lease