Did cash buy franchise? Unnamed bidder had better rating.Byline: William Green Noun 1. William Green - United States labor leader who was president of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952 and who led the struggle with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (1873-1952) Green MINISTERS handed the East Coast rail franchise to National Express despite another company being assessed as having a better chance of delivering services. The Department for Transport (DfT) awarded the contract to National Express in 2007 after previous operator GNER GNER Great North Eastern Railway (Britain) handed back the keys as it was engulfed in a financial crisis. It beat off competition from a partnership of Virgin, Stagecoach stagecoach, heavy, closed vehicle on wheels, usually drawn by horses, formerly used to transport passengers and goods overland. Throughout the Middle Ages and until about the end of the 18th cent. and GNER, as well as bids from First Group and Arriva. But concerns immediately erupted over National Express's pledge to pay the DfT pounds 1.4bn to run trains linking the North East with London and Scotland - and last month Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced the franchise would be torn up. And it has now emerged that the DfT chose National Express above another company, which it assessed as offering a better chance of delivering for passengers. Material released under a freedom of information request shows that National Express got a "performance deliverability" rating of 49.1 out of a maximum 100 The score was "deemed to be acceptable", while a financial evaluation of National Express's bid found it had a "medium risk". But another bidder - unnamed in the document - got a 54.5 performance score, raising suspicions the huge amount of money offered by National Express decided matters. Other com-paniethat put forward proposals got ratings of 48.5 and 38.5. The revelations are acutely embarrassing for the Government, especially as the DfT declared all bids had been subject to stringent deliverability tests when it awarded the contract in 2007. Liberal Democrat Liberal Democrat Noun a member or supporter of the Liberal Democrats, a British centrist political party that advocates proportional representation Liberal Democrat n (BRIT) → transport spokesman Norman Baker For other persons named Norman Baker, see Norman Baker (disambiguation). Norman John Baker (born 26 July 1957 in Aberdeen) is a British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes. said: "It looks to me as if they have made the decision to go for the money and take the extra risk, and it turned out to be a bad bet." Ministers plan to nationalise the East Coast franchise before retendering it within 18 months, but Mr Baker said it should be kept in public hands for "years" to restore stability and act as a comparator comparator Instrument for comparing something with a similar thing or with a standard measure, in particular to measure small displacements in mechanical devices. In astronomy, the blink comparator is used to examine photographic plates for signs of moving bodies. to the private sector. A spokesman for the RMT RMT right mentotransverse (position of the fetus). RMT 1. Registered Massage Therapist 2. Renal mesenchymal tumor union blasted the system, saying: "It is not going to be transparent or fair because of the nature of private rail monopolies." The DfT spokesman said: "Franchises are not always awarded to the bidder with the highest performance deliverability score." RAIL BILL THREAT TAXPAYERS may face a multi-million pound bill to run failed private rail franchises over the next five years, the Government has admitted. Amid industry warnings of further franchise failures, the Government has launched an "urgent" hunt to find consultants to help it manage services in such circumstances. The Department for Transport (DfT) is the "operator of last resort" (OoLR) if private train companies prove unable to run services - and it has "accelerated" a competition to find specialist support to fulfil ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. that role. The competition was launched on August 4 with the five-year contract due to be awarded by November 19, with the winning company starting work four days later. An official tendering document says there is an "urgent operational need" for action - which comes just weeks after Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced that the East Coast franchise was being torn up. It also warns of "uncertainty" about whether and how many train companies might fail, requiring the DfT to step in to maintain services - making it difficult to estimate the total bill to taxpayers. But the document adds: "It is anticipated that the Department will spend between pounds 50,000 and pounds 18m over the five years of the contract depending on whether the contracted supplier is called upon for operational reasons to step in and perform their duties under OoLR. " The winning consultants would be expected to support DfT negotiations with train companies, firing existing bosses and bringing in new staff, "rebranding", reviewing contracts and ensuring train services continue - even running trains themselves, if required. Rail industry expert Roger Ford, who writes for Modern Railways, said: "A number of franchises are financial fragile at the moment because they won't get Government support until the end of 2011." The independent National Audit Office spending watchdog also warned last year that rail companies could fail if passenger demand fell amid an economic downturn. CAPTION(S): BAD BET? National Express pledged pounds 1.4bn to win the East Coast Main Line franchise. |
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