Ministers stall on West Coast report
The Government will publish an internal report into the West Coast Mainline fiasco “shortly”, the Transport minister said today.
The Department for Transport has been criticised after Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw handed over the report yesterday, but ministers have not yet released it to MPs.
After a high profile campaign from the current franchise operator Virgin, the original decision to award the franchise to FirstGroup was overturned after a number of technical errors were found in the bidding process.
Transport minister Simon Burns told the Commons today: “There is not a question of postponing the publication of the report – we hope to publish it shortly.”
Transport Select Committee chair Louise Ellman had said she was “concerned at the failure of the Government to produce the report as promised”.