This from the Transport Select Committee...
3 October 2012
For Immediate Release:
SCA 27/2012–13
Oral evidence – west
coast main line franchise
The Transport Select Committee will call the Secretary of
State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP, and the Permanent Secretary at the
Department for Transport, Philip Rutnam, to give oral evidence on the
cancellation of the competition to run the West Coast Main Line franchise on Wednesday
31 October at 2.45 pm.
Committee Chair Louise Ellman MP said:
It is astonishing that the
Government has had to cancel the West Coast Main Line franchise competition and
delay other competitions. Just last month the Secretary of State told us that
he was content with how the Department for Transport had handled the West Coast
Main Line competition and that Virgin’s challenge to the outcome would be
defended robustly.
I expect the Department’s review
of what went wrong to be available by the end of this month and we will want to
examine that very carefully. We will also want to know how much this episode
has cost the taxpayer, what lessons will be learnt, and what will be the wider
implications for franchising. In addition, I expect the Committee to look
closely at the Government’s review of franchising when it is published at the
end of this year
Committee Membership is as
follows:
Mrs Louise Ellman
(Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) (Chair); Steve Baker (Conservative,
Wycombe); Jim Dobbin (Labour/Co-operative, Heywood and Middleton); Mr Tom
Harris (Labour, Glasgow South); Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West); Kwasi
Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne); Mr John Leech (Liberal Democrat,
Manchester Withington); Paul Maynard (Conservative, Blackpool North and Cleveleys);
Iain Stewart (Conservative, Milton Keynes South); Graham Stringer (Labour,
Blackley and Broughton); Julian Sturdy (Conservative, York Outer).
ENDS
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