The government has been criticised for making “irresponsible decisions” which led to the collapse of the franchise competition for the West Coast Mainline rail franchise.
A report by the House of Commons’ transport committee also blamed failures by civil servants for the debacle which saw the original decision to award the franchise to First Group instead of current operator Virgin Trains scrapped by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
The transport committee said that despite the obvious errors by civil servants - which included not taking inflation into account in the calculations - the coalition government had to take the blame for pushing through changes to the rail franchise bidding process while also cutting costs at the DfT
Labour MP Louise Ellman, who chairs the transport committee, said: “Embarking on an ambitious - perhaps unachievable - reform of franchising, in haste, on the UK’s most complex piece of railway was an irresponsible decision for which ministers were ultimately responsible. This was compounded by major failures by civil servants, some of whom misled ministers.”
Following the cancellation of the franchise competition, the government extended Virgin Trains franchise to continue running the West Coast services up to November 2014 to allow time for a new bidding process to be held.
The DfT commissioned its own report into the West Coast process by Sam Laidlaw and Ed Smith, both non-executive directors at the department, which was unveiled last month and primarily blamed civil servants for the failure of the bidding process.
Ellman said: “Many of the problems with the franchise competition, detailed in the Laidlaw report, reflect very badly on civil servants at the DfT.
“However, ministers approved a complex – perhaps unworkable - franchising policy at the same time as overseeing major cuts to the department’s resources. This was a recipe for failure which the DfT must learn from urgently.”
McLoughlin also announced today (January 31) that the planned bidding process for the Great Western franchise this year would be terminated and the government would instead negotiate with current operator First Group for a two-year extension to the franchise, which runs from Paddington in London to the West Country and South Wales.
"This is to allow for a more fundamental review of the franchise proposition, recognising that this is a large and complex franchise which will need to manage service delivery whilst the route is electrified and new rolling stock is introduced," said McLoughlin in a statement to Parliament.
The DfT announced that it will still go ahead with the competitions for the Essex Thameside and Thameslink rail franchises.