FirstGroup to take row with regulator to court
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain's Rail industry was plunged into fresh turmoil yesterday as one of the biggest train operators declared that it will be taking legal action against the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA).
Lawyers at FirstGroup are preparing for High Court proceedings after the SRA yesterday reaffirmed its refusal to allow the group to bid for the enlarged Greater Anglia franchise.
The unprecedented legal dispute will cast a shadow over the network at a time when it is trying to make a case to ministers for increased investment.
Yesterday officials at the SRA were unmoved by a leafleting campaign by the group's First Great Eastern company at London's Liverpool Street station which urged passengers to lobby the SRA. The subsidiary, which operates the most efficient services in the region, claimed that the authority had been inundated with e-mails arguing that its name should be added to the shortlist of bidders.
Asked whether the SRA would reconsider its decision, a spokesman for Richard Bowker, chairman of the authority, said: "No. The decision has been made and three train operators have cleared the hurdle. We will not be revisiting the decision unless forced to do so by a judicial review."
Both National Express, which operates West Anglia services and GB Railways which runs the Anglia operation, have been included in the shortlist to bid for the enlarged Greater Anglia licence. The authority has also selected Arriva which was recently removed as the incumbent at Merseyrail.
The SRA official said that pre-qualifying for the bidding process was not just a question of "ticking boxes".
He said: "If they pursue the legal process we would just have to play it straight and say exactly why they failed to clear the hurdle. It would have been better if they had made their points in their submission to us."
It is understood that FirstGroup may have thought the initial process was a formality and that its credentials for running the wider franchise were obvious to the SRA because its was an incumbent. Despite a plea to Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, the Government has refused to intervene on FirstGroup's behalf. Transport for London has argued that First Great Eastern is one of the best-performing train companies in the South-east and should be allowed to bid.
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