I was shocked to hear that Lord Adonis may not have completely upfront with Parliament with regards to the state of rail franchising system last June.
It was clear that he knew that something was amiss but did not want to let that on to Parliament until he absolutely had to.
Of course his office claims that nothing was amiss, saying: “At the time of the Transport Select Committee hearing in
June National Express had not given notice that it intended
to default.”
That is not the point though, is it?
Publicly maintaining that the rail franchise system is working perfectly when you have received a letter from Ray O’Toole, National Express's chief operating officer, saying that the company ‘will not be able to continue with the NXEC franchise on its current terms’, is not really on.
