Letter: West Coast rail goal post move
I refer to the report on Page 7 of the Shropshire Star recently regarding the West Coast rail franchise and your comment 'Too little, too late' on Page 8.
Regarding the latter piece, for the record Virgin inherited a hopelessly uneconomic method of operating the Shrewsbury-London direct service from British Rail.
Each day's operation started with an empty train hauled by a diesel locomotive departing from Wolverhampton carriage depot for Shrewsbury, the train returned carrying passengers to Wolverhampton where the locomotive was removed and an electric locomotive completed the journey to London.
Much shunting of diesel and electric locomotives took place daily culminating with the last train of the day from London running empty from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton carriage depot.
Two daily journeys therefore generated no revenue but more efficient operating methods have only become available since the service's demise.
FirstGroup have promised to launch a Shrewsbury-London direct service in 2016 but press reports have stated Virgin could commence their direct service from an earlier date and also serve Wrexham, Ruabon, Chirk and Gobowen. Is it possible to obtain confirmation of these reports from Virgin?
Sir Richard Branson has claimed the West Coast bidding process was flawed. It has been reported the Department for Transport has changed the rules for future bids, commencing with Great Western bids due to be received in October.
This sounds very much like 'goal post movement', no wonder Sir Richard feels aggrieved.
Richard Jones
Oswestry
