The government could repeat its West Coast Mainline mistake with HS2

This Monday Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin faced the House of Commons to make a second statement on the fiasco surrounding the West Coast Mainline rail franchise.  Reporting on the initial findings of an inquiry into what went wrong, the Transport Secretary said the conclusions made ‘uncomfortable reading’ and showed, amongst other failings,  a lack of transparency in the process, inconsistencies in the treatment of bidders and technical flaws in the modelling.

While these revelations raise huge concerns about the internal working at the Department for Transport, I was glad to see the Transport Secretary approach his department’s shortcomings with openness and transparency; I commended his approach during the statement.  However, it is not sufficient to promote transparency on this bidding process alone. In the wake of such fundamental failures,  trust in the Department’s ability to deliver has been shaken.

This is why we need to see this re-examination extended beyond the WCML franchise and applied to the largest project ever proposed in peacetime, which is currently on the Secretary of State’s desk  – HS2.