Thursday 20 September 2012

Democracy in action: House of Commons scrutiny of the West Coast Mainline Franchise Decision

Monday 17th September saw a debate in Westminster Hall on the West Coast Mainline Franchise debacle following the successful raising of an e-petition by Ross McKillop. The three hour debate was opened by Rosie Cooper  MP and closed for the Government by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport Stephen Hammond.

The debate can be seen in full on parliament.tv and can be read in Hansard

The week before had seen Virgin Trains and First Group appear before the Transport Select Committee (my blog on which is here). The coverage on parliament.tv can be at found here whilst the uncorrected transcript can be read here (the corrected version will be published as HC 537-i (Session 2012-13).

Subsequently, the new Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick Mcloughlin, appeared before the Committee and stressed his “determination” to press ahead with the FirstGroup bid. The uncorrected transcript can be read here (the corrected version will be published as HC 584-i (Session 2012-13) whilst the parliament.tv coverage can be seen here.

Finally, the Department for Transport has let it be known that a team from the Directly Operated Railways company is being readied to take over the West Coast Main Line from December 9th... One does wonder if the Office of Fair Trading will have a view on one company running two main lines in direct competition?

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