WCML

[Tony]

Bet Mr Branson's happy with that outcome, he also now knows what First Group would be prepared to bid to win it when the tendering fiasco is finally sorted & both companies can re-tender for it.

Has anyone seen any reports anywhere that First Group would have still won the franchise even if the Dft calculations/figures had been correct?

That is the only fair thing to do, anyone other than Virgin doing the temp bit would have meant Virgin would have lost their management team as they would have no train to run so would have had difficulty retendering. First will presumably get a similar offer for Great Western.

As for who would have won it is difficult to say a different bidders were given different figures to base their bids on. That shows how useless the DfT are. First's figures did mean at the end of the franchise they were carrying more passengers than there were seats apparently.

[winston]

Looks as though Virgin will now continue to operate the WCML for a further four years

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport-news/2013/03/27/virgin-trains-on-track-to-run-west-coast-main-line-for-longer/