West Coast Main Line deal ditched...

The decision to award the West Coast Main Line rail franchise to FirstGroup has been scrapped and the government says the bidding process must be rerun.



Ministers say there were "significant technical flaws" in the way the risks for each bid were calculated.

They have also ordered two independent reviews into what happened.

FirstGroup, which beat current operator Virgin Trains to win the 13-year deal, said it had submitted its bid correctly and was "disappointed" at the move.

'Deeply regrettable'

The August announcement that FirstGroup would take over train services on the line - one of Britain's busiest - in December had sparked a legal challenge from Virgin, which has run the franchise since 1997.

The Department for Transport said because of the decision to rerun the bidding process it would no longer be contesting the judicial review launched by Virgin Trains in the High Court.

And it said an announcement would be made about the suspension of staff while the investigation into the mistakes is carried out

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin described the mistakes made by his department as "deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable".

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

"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."

He said one review would examine how the West Coast franchise competition went wrong, and what lessons can be learned.

The other review would look into the wider Department for Transport rail franchise programme, he added.

After losing the bid, the founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, said he was convinced that civil servants had "got their maths wrong."

He asked that the signing of the contract could be delayed so that the process could be reviewed.

But Justine Greening, who was Transport Minister at the time, defended what she described as the "robustness of the process.".

First run a lot of our buses, and are generally AWFUL. Timetables mean nothing, services often removed with no notice - or apology - cut services, grotty old buses.

Whatever Branson's shortcomings, I'd far rather see his firm running it! But of course, he doesn't contribute to Tory party funds, does he? That means they'll probably make sure he doesn't get the franchise anyway.