Posted 16th April 2008 | 2 Comments
Virgin surprise at ‘blackmail’ claim by Minister
VIRGIN Trains has reacted strongly over a letter sent to West Coast MPs by rail minister Tom Harris in which he says he was not prepared to be ‘blackmailed’ over getting extra Pendolino coaches.
The Government has rejected a Virgin Trains plan to link the provision of 106 extra coaches for its 52-train fleet of Pendolinos with a two-year extension on their franchise from 2012.
The Department for Transport has now itself started a process to procure extra trains and coaches and to find an operator to project-manage the new build.
But Mr Harris has written to all MPs with a West Coast main line interest to clarify what happened.
He rejected any suggestion that the DfT had said no to extra Pendolinos, insisting that was not the case.
“We did say no to Virgin, to their proposal for what they called the two year extension to the franchise, which I perceived as being a new two-year franchise without any competition.
“And they could not convince me that that process would provide value for money, or better value for money, than an open contest.
“I was not prepared for the Department to be blackmailed with the prospect of Pendolino line-filling as the prize.”
But a Virgin Trains spokesman said: “We are extremely surprised at the use of this word by the Minister. We have been in a lot of dialogue with the Department and we will be looking for a meeting with him to see where things are going.
“Managing the whole process to install extra coaches would include depot extensions, reconfiguring the trains and all the commissioning work involved.
“In the last two years of our franchise we would expect to be in a steady state and as we would be taking on an enormous risk in doing all this work we asked for a relatively limited extension.”
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Mark Antoni Annis, Cardiff, Wales
I think there is still a strong anti rail culture in this country, because efficient rails are too european thing to do. They want eventually to encourage people to fly or drive, more money is spent on new motorways new runways and airport extensions. It apears this goverment like the previous conservative is obsessed my neo liberal economic of the likes of Milton Friedman and give a dam to the consequences of global warming.
Mr RW, Sheffield, UK
what i as a rail user want to know is why on earth does the DFT have a say in who can or can't put extra coaches within an existing train set and for that matter as a tax payer why is a goverment department activly running a railway it is not a business it does not answer to anyone. it is the sir humphry atitude of goverment knows best and the people that activly run our railways know nothing. in this country we aught to have a phase shift in the aims of our railway network we should be going for groath we should have a stratigic track agency with mandatory aim to reopening disused and moth balled lines so that we have a railway fit for the twenty first century. as a rail user it beggers beleif that the DFT works on the principal of no groath for our rail system no company works on that pricipal it would be soon out of business if it did. all i can say is the DFT aught to get out more into the real world and see the expanding usage of our rail system for them selves. as a tax payer i would send the people at the DFT to the job centre because they can't do the job they have got. the DFT works for itself not the intrests of the traveling public. the DFT makes my blood boil. you have only to look at the diused woodhead root in our area as an example of unmitigated foly of the part of the DFT and for that matter the transport minister that lives in the south yorkshire area said that this root is not needed what does she know i bet she hardly youses the railways system i bet she has a ministerial car to run around in at our expence. well i think she is wrong i know it and the people that use the railways in south yorkshire know it too. i want and i think the vast majority of the people in the country want to see our railway and it is ours go from strenth to strenth for groath track reopening should go right to the top of the list of aims for the railway of now and the future.