Virgin boss warns MPs of rail fiasco in West Coast contract row
THE Government risks a repeat of the East Coast rail franchise fiasco if it goes ahead and awards the contract to operate the vital West Coast Main Line to FirstGroup, Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has said.
Speaking to the Commons Transport Committee, Sir Richard said the situation encountered by Birmingham-based National Express in 2010 when it was forced to hand back the East Coast operation to the Government because it could not make the service pay was a real possibility for the WCML if the Department for Transport went ahead and gave the contract to FirstGroup.
He said the deal would be bad for passengers and the country as a whole because he was sceptical that FirstGroup could make its figures stack up. He claimed plans by FirstGroup to secure an additional 60m passengers during the lifetime of the contract were unsustainable.
He said Virgin’s 15 years experience in operating the route had shown it what was possible and what was not.
Sir Richard also said the Government had not followed its own rules when awarding the contract – on of the main reasons why Virgin has mounted a legal challenge to the DfT’s decision to award the contract to FirstGroup.
The contract remains unsigned following the challenge and whether FirstGroup will now be able to step in and take over the contract on December 9 is open to question.
If it is not ready then the transfer might have to be delayed for three months or there is a real possibility the route could be re-nationalised, although such a move would deprive the Treasury of sorely-needed funding.
FirstGroup chief executive Tim O’Toole said that even with a poor infrastructure there was a possibility to secure growth by a phased investment in facilities.
He said he believed the incentives FirstGroup would introduce in order to attract passengers would be sufficient to meet the claims it had made in its tender submission.
