Posted 12th October 2012 | 8 Comments
Union may launch legal challenge over West Coast
RMT general secretary Bob Crow
THE RMT union has warned that it may take legal action against the Department for Transport if a new West Coast contract is awarded to Virgin Trains.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin is due to tell Parliament on Monday who will be operating the Intercity West Coast service from 9 December, following the collapse of the award to FirstGroup as a result of serious mistakes within the DfT.
His main choices are to ask Virgin to continue operating the service under the terms of a management contract in return for a fixed slice of revenue, or for the DfT's own company Directly Operated Trains to step in, as it has on East Coast.
Persistent rumours have been suggesting that he is likely to choose Virgin, but there have been reports that awarding such a contract without a full tendering process, for which there would be no time, could breach European procurement law.
FirstGroup, which lost the potential contract after the DfT's errors were revealed last week, has remained silent over whether it is taking legal action, but the RMT has said it is taking legal advice today to see if a new Virgin contract would break the rules.
The union says that if its legal advisers do confirm irregularities it will 'be looking' to mount a legal challenge on its own, irrespective of what action FirstGroup might take.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow added: "Once again the DfT is leaking like a sieve, just as it did when First were awarded the WCML in August, with briefings flying around that a short term fix is on the cards to keep Richard Branson quiet and avoid the logical move to public ownership of the railways which the vast majority of the British people support.
"The Government stand on the brink of compounding the expense, instability and shambles that is rail privatisation on the basis of pure right wing ideology. It would appear that under EU law a management contract with Virgin is against procurement rules, rules that can be conveniently ignored when it suits Government policy in favour of private greed."
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
anonymous, Midlands
Bill, London: for me, is in not whether to TOC is in state hands or not but to remove the interference of the DfT and politicians en masse, There is no real evidence that DOR reduces costs or provides a better service.
Let's simplify these processes, remove the laywers, civils servant and let railwaymen (men for human) run the railways with some reasonable financial support, i.e. akin to that given to these private companies.
Bill, London
Steve, Eastbourne. Bob Crow is not, as you state, an "incompetent idiot". Indeed, only an idiot could fail to see that for the staff and passenger's sake the railways are better off in state hands, saving the passenger from skyrocketing fares and driving down costs due to removing the need to pay out to greedy shareholders.
Thor, Essex
Bob is a Troskyite. Any confrontation is good in his book.
Lee, Manchester
Why dosen't Bob Crowe and the RMT put its money where its mouth is and submit a bid for the West Coast franchise to show the Government, public and all other train operators how a franchise should be run? Going off their previous comments they should be able to run the safest, cheapest, most punctual and most reliable services, furthermore, they will never go on strike because they will be running the franchise equitably for all their members and the travelling public, wont overcharge, will pay the highest farest wages, with the most benefits and generally create a Public Transport Utopia wont they?
Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Fancy Bob Crow taking a responsible route and proving that new contract would break EU laws an organisation that is not to popular with the Tories!!
Anyway why should First Group become the fall guy for Tory incompetence when they chose to change the rules without thinking what they were doing!!
Steve, Eastbourne
'avoid the logical move to public ownership of the railways which the vast majority of the British people support.'
The logical move would be to keep the DfT far away from the railways as possible. This comes from a man who derided First Group and said Virgin should be in charge.
What a hypocrite! Bob you really show what an incompetent idiot you are. Your members have done well out of Virgin so do not cause anymore distruption.
This whole mess is down the DfT (DafT) not any private company! That is very clear to see
Billy Bell, Beith, UK
What?
No ballot for a strike Boaby?
David McDonald, Rickmansworth
Oh dear, here comes Bob Crow again sticking his nose in...