West Coast Main Line franchise competition cancelled

The Government has scrapped plans to award the West Coast franchise to FirstGroup, citing ‘significant technical flaws in the was the process was conducted’.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the competition would now have to be re-run, ending its challenge to Virgin’s judicial review of the decision.

An announcement will be made later today concerning the suspension of staff while an investigation takes place.

Two independent reviews are now being undertaken.

All other outstanding franchise competitions have now been paused following the results of the independent reviews.

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.

“A detailed examination by my officials into what happened has revealed these flaws and means it is no longer possible to award a new franchise on the basis of the competition that was held.

“I have ordered two independent reviews to look urgently and thoroughly into the matter so that we know what exactly happened and how we can make sure our rail franchise programme is fit for purpose.”

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.”

DfT permanent secretary Philip Rutnam said: “The errors exposed by our investigation are deeply concerning. They show a lack of good process and a lack of proper quality assurance.

“I am determined to identify exactly what went wrong and why, and to put these things right so that we never find ourselves in this position again.”

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.

The DfT will reimburse their bid costs and has assured them that a fresh competition will be started as soon as the lessons of this episode are learned.