Kid Sampson Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Do the First Group Travel make any contributions to the Tory Party? Whether they do or not is irrelevant, the process is run to strict EU rules by civil servants so as to remove political influence. Also bids are anonomised so those making the decisions do not know who bid what until the final decision has been made. There probably is corruption in the DfT, but I would seriously doubt is has the Tories fingerprints on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Tamudo Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Whether they do or not is irrelevant, the process is run to strict EU rules by civil servants so as to remove political influence. Also bids are anonomised so those making the decisions do not know who bid what until the final decision has been made. There probably is corruption in the DfT, but I would seriously doubt is has the Tories fingerprints on it. Keep posting Kid, even though you're a bit wet behind the ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Sampson Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Haven't a couple of train companies handed back the line because they bid too much and couldn't make it pay? Yep, National Express East Coast overbid and had to hand back the keys. GNER before then is frequently used as another example but the situation was more complicated and was more to do with the owning group (sea containers) than the franchisee. Plus there have been numerous instances of franchises going into revenue support due to agreed passenger growth not materialising due to unsforseen circumstances, Virgin West Coast (due to failure of Railtrack to introduce 140mph running and delays modernising the route), Virgin Cross Country (same reasons), Great Western, South West Trains and probably more than that after Hatfield and the associated fallout. This means that the government tops up half the revenue shortfall of the train operators so they can continue making agreed payments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Sampson Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Keep posting Kid, even though you're a bit wet behind the ears. So do you think that National Express were making donations to Labour when they overbid for East Coast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Tamudo Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 So do you think that National Express were making donations to Labour when they overbid for East Coast? Can I phone a friend or ask the forum via a poll? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Sampson Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Can I phone a friend or ask the forum via a poll? I asked what you thought since you seem so enlightened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fudbeer Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Ministers told 5 days before the announcement of the franchise that there were serious flaws in the process. In an assesment of who was best to run the franchise Virgin scorred 64.5 and first scored 60.1 However dispite this first was prepared to pay the govenment more money so were given the contract. According to other opperators the whole process was flawed. http://www.channel4.com/news/how-an-illegal-process-sunk-the-governments-rail-strategy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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