VIRGIN Group founder Sir Richard Branson has expressed shock at the disqualification from bidding, and has admitted the bold Virgin name, which has been on the side of trains for 22 years, could disappear. 

Virgin ‘lost’ the West Coast Main Line (WCML) franchise in 2012 to First Group, but in the face of a legal challenge to the technical flaws in the bidding process, connected to how civil servants calculated the risks for each bid, the DfT cancelled the competition, and Virgin continued to operate WCML inter-city services. 

High speed

Since then, the DfT has awarded a series of incremental contracts to the planned end of the current extension on March 31, 2020. At this point, the West Coast Partnership (WCP) takes over running the WCML. 

Read more in the May 2019 issue of The RM – on sale May 1!

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