The 10 day cooling off period expires tomorrow, so unless Virgin or any of the other bidders call for a judicial review, the DfT are free to sign a contract with First. The select committee can still conduct a review but it will have no bearing on the franchise.Isn't the franchise supposed to be signed tomorrow?
The 10 day cooling off period expires tomorrow, so unless Virgin or any of the other bidders call for a judicial review, the DfT are free to sign a contract with First. The select committee can still conduct a review but it will have no bearing on the franchise.
Agree, some of the journalism in the last 2 weeks has been appalling. Stripping Virgin of the franchise implies they have screwed up G4S style, rather than having been unsuccessful in regaining the contract which would be a far more accurate way of reporting."Sir Richard Branson's hopes of clinging on to the west coast rail franchise are fading as the government prepares to formally strip Virgin Trains of the London-Glasgow route."
That reads as if the Government has simply terminated Virgin's contract and put First in charge!
Virgin automatically ceases to run the WCML in December.
Terrible journalism right there.
I quite liked the quote from the Minister who said something along the lines of 'we note the offer made by Virgin through the press'. Cutting! In other words, you didn't come to us directly with that offer, so you're clearly courting public opinion, or put another way - making a stunt.
So you would take their votes away from them (or anyone else for that matter) because they don't know enough about running the NHS, maintaining the roads, policing, social policy, housing and all the rest and you disagree with them?
Lawyers for Virgin Trains were yesterday preparing to launch a last-minute legal challenge to stop the Government signing a contract which will strip them of their right to run the West Coast Mainline service.
The company said it had a team of lawyers working over the Bank Holiday examining their options for a judicial review of the decision to hand over the West Coast franchise to FirstGroup. A final decision will be made today but a spokesman for the company said a challenge was "likely" unless the Government backed down and allowed Parliament to scrutinise the deal.
"You don't pay expensive lawyers to work over the Bank Holiday weekend unless your intentions are pretty clear," said a spokesman for the group. The move came as Labour urged the Transport Secretary Justine Greening not to sign off the contract, which could happen any time from midnight tonight, until MPs have been able to scrutinise it in detail. In a letter to Ms Greening, the shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle wrote: "The decision appears almost exclusively a 'bottom line' one, driven by a particularly high pledge of payments to Government."
She added: "You will know of the history of franchise contracts being brought to an early end, at least in part because of over-ambitious payment promises that proved impossible to realise. There are fears that lessons have not been learnt."
Ms Eagle also warned about the impact on fares and levels and quality of services and the possibility of First cutting short the contract.
FirstGroup claims it will deliver better value for taxpayers. It plans major improvements to the InterCity West Coast franchise to enhance the customer experience, including improved Wi-Fi and catering, as well as additional services and more seats and reducing standard anytime fares by 15 per cent on average.
But Virgin claims FirstGroup's payments to Government to run the franchise are skewed towards the end of the contract period leaving open the possibility that it could pull out early and substantially reduce the worth of the deal to the taxpayer.
In an interview on the BBC, Richard Branson who runs Virgin Trains alongside the transport company Stagecoach claimed that FirstGroup's bid will lead to "almost certain bankruptcy". "I think that the person who can really intervene to try to get some sense into the Department for Transport is the Prime Minister and he is on holiday, the Chancellor is on holiday and we would like things delayed by a month or so," he said. "If, as a result of that, it means that the handover is delayed we would obviously be very happy to run it on a not-for-profit basis."
The Department for Transport dismissed Sir Richard's offer to run the service on a not-for-profit basis to allow the deal to be re-examined, insisting it would go ahead with the contract. A spokesman said: "However, the winning bidder was decided by a fair and established process and no reason has been advanced to convince DfT not to sign the agreement."
He added: "We are in receipt of a letter from Virgin Trains which is a precursor to legal action. We are reviewing the correspondence. The Department is confident in the process it undertook and the decision made in awarding the West Coast franchise."
FirstGroup insisted the bidding process was fair and deliverable. Chief executive Tim O'Toole said: "We won the bid fair and square."
As an aside. Hope Branson takes action with a judicial review.
Ministers avoiding direct questions and failing to answer what was actually asked is nothing new, it has been this way for as long as I can remember, and before.
From the Independent, looks like "sources close" are confirming there's to be a day in court after all
Ministers avoiding direct questions and failing to answer what was actually asked is nothing new, it has been this way for as long as I can remember, and before.
I see absolutely no problem with waiting for MPs to have a look at the deal especially when an entire party want that as well as an e-petition. The Virgin-are-being-babies bashers are just as bad as the blind Virgin lovers. This is serious business not just some quick decision and if people think there's a problem and that it might want to be looked at again, on such an important decision as a 13-year franchise agreement, no it is not childish to ask for it to be reviewed.
I see absolutely no problem with waiting for MPs to have a look at the deal especially when an entire party want that as well as an e-petition. The Virgin-are-being-babies bashers are just as bad as the blind Virgin lovers. This is serious business not just some quick decision and if people think there's a problem and that it might want to be looked at again, on such an important decision as a 13-year franchise agreement, no it is not childish to ask for it to be reviewed.
Cooling off period doesn't expire until midnight, so nothing will be signed until Wednesday.Have the papers been signed then yet?
I see absolutely no problem with waiting for MPs to have a look at the deal especially when an entire party want that as well as an e-petition. The Virgin-are-being-babies bashers are just as bad as the blind Virgin lovers. This is serious business not just some quick decision and if people think there's a problem and that it might want to be looked at again, on such an important decision as a 13-year franchise agreement, no it is not childish to ask for it to be reviewed.
Cooling off period doesn't expire until midnight, so nothing will be signed until Wednesday.