5 February 2018
RMT Press Office:
RMT on speculation Grayling to announce Virgin West Coast franchise extension this evening
General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“Rumours are rife this afternoon that Chris Grayling is setting up a major “market sensitive” announcement on the West Coast Mainline for six pm and that that announcement may mean a further cash-laden extension for Virgin and Sir Richard Branson without any competition or consideration of the public sector option.
“RMT awaits the announcement and after the fiasco of Chris Grayling and the Tory Party chairmanship just a few weeks ago we know that anything is possible with this shambles of a Government.
“However, if the well-informed speculation is correct it will expose yet again the cronyism and chicanery of the privatised rail franchising process and will ram yet another nail into the coffin of this whole rotten business. If the East Coast bail out is to be followed by a West Coast bung the British people will be rightly up in arms and it will reinforce the cold, hard fact that it’s no longer a question of if our railways will be returned to public hands, it’s a matter of when.”
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