InterCity West Coast (ICWC) was a 1997–2019 railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands,

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

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Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

, and other major destinations between. The franchise was formed during the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

and transferred to the private sector on 9 March 1997, when

Virgin Trains Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast ...

commenced operations. It was due to be re-let in December 2012, with

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.West Coast Partnership The West Coast Partnership (WCP) is a railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML)(and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands, Shropshire, North Wales, Liverpool, Manchest ...

, currently operated by Avanti West Coast.

Services

Virgin Trains off-peak service map (2013)

, these were the services offered:

1997 franchise

The initial franchise was contested by Sea Containers,

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

and Virgin Rail Group. Each submitted two bids, one based on an all

tilting train A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide ab ...

fleet, and another based on a combination of conventional and tilting trains. On 19 February 1997, the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising awarded a 15-year franchise to Virgin Rail Group, with

commencing operations on 9 March 1997. In order for tilting trains to be operated,

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

was committed to upgrade the West Coast Main Line to allow 140 mph operation by 2005. In the wake of the collapse of Railtrack and the inability of its successor

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

to deliver the upgrade, the franchise was suspended in favour of a management contract in July 2002. After projected costs greatly increased from £2.5 billion to £10 billion, there were cutbacks to the upgrade and the top speed was reduced to 125 mph.

2012 franchise process

90015 'The International Brigades' at Carlisle

During 2011 and 2012 the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

(DfT) conducted a franchise competition, announced a winner, then cancelled the competition and refunded the costs of bids before any contracts were signed.

Bidding competition

With the franchise awarded in 1997 scheduled to end on 31 March 2012, the DfT started the refranchising process in January 2011 by inviting expressions of interest in the Official Journal of the European Union for a 14-year franchise to run from 1 April 2012 to March 2026. The award of the franchise was stated to be based on the "most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria as stated in the specifications". The franchise was the first to be offered under a new scheme rather than the previous "Cap and Collar" system, which provided for risk-sharing with government regarding future demand. The new scheme was intended to provide greater incentives for cost reduction by operators. Because of the increased future risks carried by operators under the new scheme, the government required a large financial surety to discourage early contract default. In March 2011, the DfT shortlisted

Abellio Abellio (also Abelio and Abelionni) was a god worshiped in the Garonne Valley in Gallia Aquitania (now southwest France), known primarily by a number of inscriptions which were discovered in Comminges, in the Pyrenees. He may have been a god o ...

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Keolis/

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

and Virgin Rail Group to bid for the franchise, which would run for up to 15 years. In May 2011, a Draft Invitation to Tender was issued to the shortlisted bidders, which stated the franchise start date had been postponed until 9 December 2012. In October 2011, the DfT announced that Virgin had been granted a franchise extension until 8 December 2012, and in January 2012 issued the Final Invitation to Tender to the shortlisted bidders. On 15 August 2012, the DfT announced FirstGroup as the successful bidder for the franchise, promising 11 new six-carriage electric trains, direct services to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

in 2013, and to Telford,

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

and Bolton in 2016.

Challenge

On 10 August 2012 a report commissioned by Virgin Rail Group, detailing concerns with the franchising evaluation process, was handed to the DfT. An e-petition was created to urge the government to reconsider its decision and to debate the bids in the House of Commons. The petition was set up independently, but backed by Virgin, and attracted large support, gaining 50,000 signatures within two days. The 100,000 signatures required for the petition to be considered for debate in Parliament was exceeded. The matter was debated in Westminster Hall on 17 September 2012. Following the public's response to Virgin's loss of the franchise, Louise Ellman, Chair of the Transport Select Committee, wrote to the then

Secretary of State for Transport The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

Justine Greening Justine Greening (born 30 April 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2011, Secretary of State for Transpor ...

, asking her to delay the signing of the new contract until the committee had a chance to explore the matter. Virgin had offered to run the line on a 'not for profit' basis while this took place. Despite public and political pressure for an independent review of the deal, the DfT declared it would not delay the signing of the contract once the ten-day standstill period had expired. On 28 August, Virgin Trains announced it would seek a

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...

of the franchise decision, preventing the contract being signed, claiming civil servants had "got their maths wrong with FirstGroup". The DfT responded, stating that they were confident the selection process was robust. In September 2012, the DfT began making arrangements for the franchise to pass temporarily to West Coast Main Line Limited, a subsidiary of Directly Operated Railways, in the event that a judicial review was granted.

Cancellation

On 3 October 2012, the government announced it was cancelling the franchise competition after discovering significant technical flaws in the bidding process, thus cancelling the decision to award it to FirstGroup. It was stated that civil servants had made significant mistakes in the way in which the risks for each bid had been calculated, leading to too little default surety being required of bidders. Two independent inquiries were announced; one to investigate the failed competition, led by

Sam Laidlaw William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the Executive Chairman of Neptune Energy, the independent E&P company. He is former chief executive officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and electricity company. Early li ...

of Centrica, with Ed Smith, both on the Board of the DfT; and the second led by Richard Brown of Eurostar, to investigate the wider franchise system. Three civil servants were suspended. During September 2012 the newly appointed Secretary of State for Transport,

Patrick McLoughlin Patrick Allen McLoughlin, Baron McLoughlin, (born 30 November 1957) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he first became the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire following the 1986 by-election. The constitue ...

, had been warned of potential issues. On 2 October, he decided to cancel the franchise award. The DfT had been due in the High Court on 3 October 2012 to respond to a

sought by Virgin Rail Group. On 5 October 2012, one of the three suspended civil servants, Kate Mingay, released a statement to correct the reporting of her role in the franchising process. She began legal proceedings against the DfT over her suspension, with a High Court hearing on 29 November 2012 rejecting her claim to have her suspension lifted. It was announced on 6 December 2012 that all three of the suspended civil servants, including Mingay, would return to work. The government decided it would reimburse the four bidders for all costs incurred. This amounted to £39.7 million with a further £4.9 million paid to FirstGroup as reimbursement for mobilisation costs incurred. The Laidlaw report was published in December 2012, and found the DfT to be primarily responsible for the failure of the West Coast competition, having made several errors in its financial modelling. The Brown report, published in January 2013, found no fundamental flaws in the bidding process but made recommendations for improvements.

Direct awards

In October 2012, the DfT announced that Virgin Trains would continue to operate the franchise for between 9 and 13 months until a short-term interim franchise competition for the West Coast could be rerun. In December 2012, Virgin was awarded a 23-month management contract until November 2014. In March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced negotiations with Virgin to extend the franchise until 31 March 2017; these were concluded in June 2014. In 2016 the franchise was again extended and in 2018 there was a further extension to March 2019, with an option for up to an additional year. This option was taken up by the DfT in December 2018, thereby extending the contract for a period potentially up to March 2020.

West Coast Partnership

In November 2016, the government announced that the InterCity West Coast franchise would be replaced by the

West Coast Partnership The West Coast Partnership (WCP) is a railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML)(and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands, Shropshire, North Wales, Liverpool, Manchest ...

. Avanti West Coast commenced operating the franchise on 9 December 2019.Avanti West Coast launches ''

Railways Illustrated ''Railways Illustrated'' is a British monthly railway magazine. Inside there is detail of news, stock changes, tours, and more. It is aimed at railway enthusiasts. Founded in 2003 by Ian Allan Publishing, it was published by Key Publishin ...

'' February 2020 page 6

References

{{Rail franchises in Great Britain, state=collapsed Railway franchises in the United Kingdom