Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The West Coast Fiasco

Even, if like me, you have little interest in modern diesel or electric locomotives (I'm a committed steam era person) you can't possibly have failed to hear about the fiasco surrounding the awarding of the franchise to run the West Coast main line -- unless of course you don't live in the UK. Lets just say it's been a disaster from start to finish that has left the government owing millions of pounds to a number of large railway companies and we still don't know who will end up running the line in the long run. If you want all the details then the BBC have a pretty comprehensive write up of the whole debacle.

Although there is currently no end in sight to the bidding process, there is now a new company interested in bidding for the franchise; Bigjigs Toys Ltd. It's nice to see that there are still a few people in government with a sense of humour.
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2 comments:

  1. GBJanuary 10, 2013 at 8:30 AM

    Debacle doesn't really seem to be an adequate word. From what I gathered before I left the country (for equally silly debacles by Government over tendering in New Zealand) fairly elementary mistakes had been made which should have been avoided.

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    1. MarkJanuary 10, 2013 at 8:39 AM

      I must admit to only using the word debacle to keep the language family friendly. The mess they have made needs much stronger words to adequately describe it. As you say it's the fact that they were such elementary mistakes that were obvious to all, once the details of the bids had been published, that is so outrageous, especially given the amount of money the government has been forced to refund to the companies involved.

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