Taxpayers will face 'significant' bill over West Coast rail
Taxpayers will face a "significant" bill over the West Coast rail franchise process, a report from a Government spending watchdog has said.
The Department for Transport's (DfT) running of the West Coast bidding process lacked management oversight, with some staff "confused" by the system, the National Audit Office (NAO) report said.
The Government has already indicated that repaying bidding costs to the companies competing for the franchise is likely to land taxpayers with a bill of around £40 million.
In its report, the NAO said staff and adviser costs, legal costs and money for the two reviews set up by the Government following abandonment of the West Coast bidding amounted to £8.9 million.
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.