07.12.12
West Coast ‘could cost £100m’ – RMT
Rail union RMT said that the West Coast franchise failures have strengthened the case for renationalisation, since the cost to the taxpayer could reach £100m.
This price includes the £40m cost to the failed bidders, nearly £9m investigating the errors involved and the remainder of money lost in projected earnings from the Virgin extension and costs associate with stopping the entire franchising process to consider what went wrong and whether it will affect other franchises.
The union is calling for publication of these estimated costs.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The £100m price-tag associated with the West Coast franchising fiasco will not be borne by the ministers responsible for this debacle, it will be carried yet again by the British people and will be paid for through cuts in investment and higher fares with the train operating companies protected and cushioned same as they have been since privatisation was first unleashed.
“RMT could have saved the Government the £9m wasted on the reports into what went wrong on the West Coast franchise – it was yet another failure of the whole ill-conceived rail privatisation racket and we could have told them that for nothing.
“The blame for this expensive fiasco lies with the political class and their cheerleaders in the private sector who have made a multi-billion pound killing out of the great rail rip-off. RMT will be stepping up the campaign for full renationalisation.”
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