Branson had 'been in dialogue' with Government before rail decision
Sir Richard Branson has denied claims from the Transport Secretary Justine Greening that he only raised concerns over the West Coast main line rail franchise after Virgin lost the bid.
In a letter to the Financial Times, Sir Richard wrote:
The truth is we did and have been in dialogue with the Department for Transport for more than two years on the issues around the invitation to tender.
Furthermore, we had expressed our views to the Conservatives in several meetings while they were in opposition.
In particular, we focused on the assessment and deliverability of risks involved in such long and volatile franchises, as well as seeking assurances on our long held view that bids were typically won by aggressive revenue commitments from bidders relying on good spreadsheet skills rather than good rail business sense.
How did the Department for Transport go off the rails?
Remember the Virgin Trains mess? Later an official report into what went wrong will be made public.
Government admits Virgin holding up West Coast contract
The Government has been forced to admit the profitable West Coast Main Line contract has yet to be signed, thanks to a legal bid by Virgin.