Meanwhile back on the Westcoast line!

BLUENOWZ1878 · October 5, 2012

Political interference as suspected,

C4 News, Tonight-
"the hallmarks of cover-up, obfuscation, and the remarkable revelation that according to the government's own scoring on the tenders Virgin beat the other bidder FirstGroup on deliver-ability by 64.5 to 60.1. The allegation is that the Treasury desperately needed the highest bidder to win - irrespective of whether they represented the best bid."
Economics Editor Faisal Islam

peteblue · October 5, 2012

Nice thread Richard.....

Brennan · October 5, 2012

Says it all really, they were happy for the highest bid to win so as to make their balance sheets look better, and then deal with the fallout of First Group failing to deliver down the line.

Scum.

tsubaki · October 5, 2012

Having travelled on Virgin, and seen them help to destroy the fantastic Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway, I find it very difficult to summon up even the slighest bit of sympathy.

chewee · October 5, 2012

Virgin are by far the best service in the UK ive travelled on

Light years ahead of the trains/service Firstgroup serve up

davek · October 5, 2012

As I understand it, Virgin beat First all hands up except for the projected earnings from the WCL at the very end of the contract in about 8 years time; First promised government coffers would be swollen by major increases in passengers at that point - which they just made up on the back of a fag packet and Greening accepted (I bet there was a nice little drink in it for the corrupt Tory trough snufflers, individually or collectively as a Party)

Branson's basically had these crooks off.

Another nail in the coffin of "the Coalition" credibility...such as it ever was. At this rate all Miliband has to do is shut his mouth for two years and turn up for the election.

Deloodid · October 5, 2012

tsubaki said:
Having travelled on Virgin, and seen them help to destroy the fantastic Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway, I find it very difficult to summon up even the slighest bit of sympathy.

how did they seem to help to destroy?