Posted 17th September 2012 | 6 Comments
MPs to debate West Coast controversy
MPs WILL debate the ePetition calling for the West Coast decision to be reversed later today. The next Intercity West Coast franchise was awarded to FirstGroup just over a month ago, but the decision has triggered opposition.
Virgin has taken its objections to the DfT's calculations of risk to the High Court, where the date of a preliminary hearing is still awaited, while more than 172,000 people have signed an ePetition calling for the award to go to incumbent Virgin Trains instead.;
One attempt to debate the dispute as a matter of urgency in the House of Commons at the start of this month was rejected by the Speaker, but Labour MP Rosie Cooper, whose constituency is West Lancashire, has been more successful with an application to the Commons Backbench Business Committee.
The three-hour debate will start at 16.30 in Westminster Hall, and will focus mainly on the ePetition which was launched by Ross McKillop just after FirstGroup was announced as the winner of the franchise on 15 August.
It is also likely that the evidence heard recently by the Transport Committee will be taken into account. The Committee questioned Virgin Trains, FirstGroup and the new transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin last week.
Ms Cooper said: "In recent years we’ve had train companies ending their contracts early to avoid paying overly-ambitious payments to the Government. I believe it’s essential that MPs have a chance to scrutinise this contract to be assured that passengers and taxpayers are getting the best possible deal from whoever is finally awarded the contract.
"The Department for Transport appear determined to stop MPs from scrutinising their decision and how it was made. The announcement was made when Parliament wasn’t sitting, they attempted to sign the contract before Parliament met again. If you were suspicious you’d think the Transport Department had something to hide.
“There has been a real expression of concern about this whole process from passengers, rail industry experts, from taxpayers and from politicians. If the Department for Transport is confident in their decision and the process they have used then why do they appear so intent on keeping the decision from being scrutinised? This is a Government that keeps claiming to be open and transparent except it seems when it is awarding multi-billion contracts that will last the lifetime of this Parliament and the two after that."
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
david c smith, milton keynes
Barry Cole is right - the DfT have just taken over more and more of the decision making, whether in operations, procurement or service specification.
We have a largely "pretend privatisation" where TOC's still cream off shareholder profit whilst decisions are made not by them but by civil servants.
Where possible, it would be better for TOC accountability to be through genuine competition rather than via state control.
John Dobson, Macclesfield
Mr cole your response was excellent and very precise..
We feel all is lost after all the hard work..
3000 staff with rock bottom morale..
Philip Russell, Carlisle
Mr Branson proudly declared recently that no virgin company had ever gone bust but i dont recall virgin cola ,virgin megastores or virgin radio being anything more than long gone brands that he was clever enough to offload.
Tony Pearce, Reading
Oscar Wilde said 'to lose one parent is unfortunate, to lose two is careless'. The same can be applied to the the two Virgin Train franchises that they have lost. Why didn't we get all this protest about Cross-Country trains being awarded elsewhere ?
barry cole, preston
in 1992 i was appointed rail/air manager with a remit to bring Manchester Airport rail station onto the rail network with a step change in customer service. The Manair team were carefully selected and provided a new customer focussed service for passengers of the then Regional Railways North West. As group station manager covering all the major stations in the north west including Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria we moved the customer service forward. I was then appointed Area Manager Lancashire and Cumbria with the remit to bring the team of drivers, conductors and station teams through privatisation.
Having spent some years reducing costs the train company was offered out as a franchise which was won by great western trains . Having seen the franchise agreement it was very easy to see that it wouldnt work ,cue name change to North Western Trains. The franchise didnt work and this was then taken over by first and cue another name change to first north western. It is well documented that the franchise offer did not stack up and first had to go back to the government for more money.
we then had the failures on the east coast and other smaller franchise problems. All in all lessons that should have been learnt.
Unfortunately the DfT are not railway people and they are definately not customer focussed. Having retired from the railway I was lucky enough to hold a first class status pass and I use this to travel to watch my football team as often as I can. I travel first and standard class I take in the customer service offered and compare it with the Manchester airport concept. First have a long way to go on this and the only company that has met those standards for the customer is Virgin. Surely there is a price for this service? So without actually getting customer feedback, without including the work already carried out by virgin and without checking the standard of customer care delivered by first and even knowing that the bid placed by first has some major financial risks, the DfT have awarded the franchise to first.
what about the Virgin staff, having worked for Branson, what a drop in morale to transfer to a bus company, has this been thought through as well?
Lessons from all the franchises just have not been learnt and now we have the threat of DOR. if that happens the railway has virtually completed the circle back to nationlisation. Privatisation has brought many good things and to see it being destroyed by people who just do not understand the railway, its people or its customers leaves a sour taste in my mouth
Billy Bell, Beith, UK
Oh well, that will fix it then.
It is a total waste of time. No matter what they discuss they are absolutely powerless to do anything because of the impending court action.
Stand by for a few people with no knowledge pushing their personal opinions based on what they have read here and there in the press.
Exciting times!