'Certainly not sour grapes' Virgin tell Shrewsbury and Atcham MP
VIRGIN has responded to comments made by a Shropshire MP who this week urged Sir Richard Branson to 'move on' over the West Coast Main Line deal.
Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, voiced his opinions on Radio 5 Live Breakfast on Tuesday - criticising both Virgin's rail service and their ongoing court challenge over the West Coast Main Line rail franchise.
On Wednesday the Conservative MP wrote to Branson, urging him to accept the outcome and realise that although he is a very successful businessman, he is not entitled to automatically receive government contracts or be the judge of which bid is best.
Speaking about the Virgin boss, Kawczynksi added: "His refusal to accept the decision, despite not raising any objection to the process until he had lost 'smacks of sour grapes'."
In response to Kawczynsk's comments, a Virgin spokesman said: "It is certainly not sour grapes. We wish for the details of the bid to be in the public domain before it is signed, and not investigated years later when it has failed.
"The sheer incredibility of the FirstGroup bid has made us ask further basic questions about how their forecasts have been assessed and no answers have been given."
Kawczynski has been campaigning for a Shrewsbury to London service to be reinstated since the previous service ended in January 2011.
Speaking to Radio Five Live Breakfast, he stated that he would be meeting the Chief executive of FirstGroup in September to talk about bringing the new service in ahead of its planned 2016 date.
Despite the plans, Virgin is asking for definitive proof that FirstGroup will keep their promise of a Shrewsbury to London service, adding: "We would like to see a list of firm commitments from FirstGroup.
"For instance, we would be interested if FirstGroup is guaranteeing that services will be run to Shrewsbury by 2016, as the Government says only that they will seek to introduce the service."
FirstGroup have since confirmed that there will be direct Shrewsbury to London trains by 2016.
A spokesperson from FirstGroup added: "Our plans for the InterCity West Coast franchise include offering Shropshire customers five direct trains a day between Shrewsbury, Telford and London from 2016, restoring the direct service to the capital.
"We will be introducing major service improvements including improved WiFi and better catering on our refurbished fleet, we will be cutting standard anytime fares by 15 per cent and by 2016, there will be 40,000 more seats."
Reporting for shropshirelive.com: Luke Powell
