WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY INTO THE DYSFUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT

I WAS surely not the only Derbeian who was optimistic that Patrick McLoughlin’s appointment as Transport Secretary might offer a glimmer of hope to Bombardier.

As a fellow Derbyshire MP, I presumed that Mr McLoughlin would better understand how damaging the Government’s appalling decision not to award the £1.4bn Thameslink contract to the Derby trainmaker was.

That is why Norman Baker’s response to my speech in today’s debate on the Thameslink and Crossrail contracts, that he still expects the contract with German firm Siemens to be signed early next year, was so desperately disappointing.

I made the point that serious doubts remain over the validity of the decision that was originally made 18 months ago. And, crucially, there is now an even greater justification for Mr McLoughlin to revisit the decision - if he really wants to. But it seems my words continue to fall on deaf ears.

At the outset of the procurement process, it was envisaged that Thameslink would operate as an independent franchise. But the goalposts have moved since then. It is now anticipated that a “super-franchise” will be created, also involving some of the Southern and South Eastern services.

This is a fundamental shift. Even Mr McLoughlin’s predecessor, Justine Greening, accepted that termination of the Thameslink contract could take place if there were significant changes to “external factors”. I have written to Mr McLoughlin to highlight this point and await a reply.

He told a Transport Select Committee summoned to investigate that other farce within his department - the suspended West Coast procurement process - that he accepted the public had a right to expect better. So why won’t he deliver it?

My great fear is that the Government is continuing with this process now for all the wrong reasons. The weight of evidence against its original decision is overwhelming. Industry experts and economists alike concur that there was no logic to it. And the West Coast issue has merely served to confirm that the DfE’s procurement processes are far from polished.

I worry that it is sheer stubbornness which now prevents the Government from accepting the public was right all along. But even if ministers in Westminster are prepared to threaten Derby’s wellbeing to save their blushes, local MPs should not be.

I certainly will not let this issue lie until the ink on the contract is dry and all hope is lost. I just wish Mr McLoughlin, who owes his position not to David Cameron and his Cabinet colleagues but to the people of Derbyshire who elected him, shared that loyalty.

In the meantime I used today’s debate to call for an independent enquiry to look at the way the dysfunctional Department for Transport procures trains. Unless the DfT starts acting in the national interest, we could witnessing the end of the British train making industry.