15-08-2012, 09:15
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The Invisible Woman
Cable Forum Team
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: between Portsmouth and Southampton.
Age: 72
Services: VM XL TV,50 MB VM BB,VM landline, Tivo
Posts: 40,340
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[Update] FirstGroup WCML franchise Award revoked
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19264614
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Virgin Rail has lost its bid to continue running the West Coast Mainline and will be replaced by the UK's largest rail operator, FirstGroup.
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First West Coast says it will return £5.5bn at net present value to the government over the franchise term.
That is believed to have been much higher than the amount offered by Virgin Rail, which is 49%-owned by another transport company, Stagecoach.
In a statement, Stagecoach said the reason it had failed to secure the new franchise was because FirstGroup had contracted to pay "significantly higher premium payments" to the Department for Transport.
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But there are concerns that First Group may have bid too much for the franchise.
"There have been many examples… where there have been very aggressive bids which the government has awarded and then quite soon afterwards, the people have handed back the keys and walked away from the contract without any real penalty," said Stephen Glaister, Professor of Transport and Infrastructure at Imperial College London.
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Let's hope that FirstGroup can deliver.Rail transport certainly needs improvement.
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