Future Franchising Arrangements
Virgin Trains's franchise was due to expire in March 2012. In 2009 Richard Branson launched a campaign to have the next franchise period extended for 20 to 30 years, so that Virgin would be able to spend more on infrastructure and be able to see a return on investment. Branson said the journey time between London and Birmingham could be reduced by 22 minutes to under one hour. This was turned down by the Department for Transport. Virgin had applied for a two-year extension but this was ruled out by the Department of Transport on legal grounds.
In January 2011 the Department for Transport called for expressions of interest in bidding for the next InterCity West Coast franchise. In March 2011 the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, FirstGroup, Keolis/SNCF and Virgin Rail Group had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In May 2011 the Secretary of State announced the end date had been postponed to allow the recommendations in the McNulty Report to be absorbed. In October 2011 the Department for Transport announced that Virgin had been granted a franchise extension until December 2012.
The Invitation to Tender was issued to the shortlisted bidders in January 2012 with the Department for Transport awarding FirstGroup the new franchise in August 2012.
On 3 October 2012 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the government was cancelling the franchise competition for the InterCity West Coast franchise after discovering significant technical flaws in the way the franchise process was conducted, reversing the decision to award it to FirstGroup. Following an independent review of the franchising process, a fresh competition will be held. On 15 October 2012 it was announced that the government was negotiating with Virgin Trains would run the InterCity West Coast franchise for a further 9 to 13 months from December 2012.
Read more about this topic: Virgin Trains
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