So First Group have the franchise, they are in it for one reason only PROFIT they ain't in it to run a railway.
And some where along the road someone is going to get screwed and guess what friends it's us again the tax payer & travelling public................Yes you & me. :(

Me thinks the government have seen the pound signs a bit too much. We will just have to wait and see what happens and if it goes wrong some of our tax will go to picking up the bill.
Richard

Are there any countries in the World where this type of privatisation actually works successfully?

I do feel sorry for all the Virgin staff who have worked so hard over the last few years to make Virgin the top Franchise in the eyes of the travelling public. The Pendolinos and Voyagers might not be the best stock in the world to travel on but they were achieving the original intentions.
As Richard says it seems that money and not an ability to deliver is what it takes to win a franchise!

I still believe that privatisation was the worst thing that happened. Although as has been said Virgin do seem to have done a reasonable job.
I'll reserve judgement on FG until the first problems start to appear!

If First run the West Coast as well as they operate FGW, then the users of WC don't know what bad service levels they can look forward to in future. How are First going to introduce an extra 11 x 6 coach trains onto a railway which has already been declared full with very few extra paths available? Presumably freight will have to be routed away from the West coast lines.

In yesterday's Western Morning News - a Plymouth paper fears are express about cuts in bus services in rural areas run by First Bus. In the south west First bus have already vacated North Devon to Stagecoach and are handing over Services in Taunton too. Does this trend hint that First will shut up bus garages to keep increased rail liabilities running -Coast Route. This is the company that took over former GWR bus company Western national. Are bus services in Yeovil, York, Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, Bradford, etc safe?

frist are shuting bus services all over uk as they have £1.3bilion debt befor the money for the west cost line is added to this i wonder if my bus fare will go up soon in licester to cover the cost

I did'nt realise that FG were that much in debt, but who knows how these large companies operate financially, a million pounds appears to be just a number!
FG made a statement on TV that they will re- introduce trains from Shrewsbury,and Blackpool to Euston, sounds good, but the spokesman then added, --- " we need to purchase new trains first, so they won't be ready until 2016!!!
I apologise for repeating my view's, but when will our government realise that we should look on our railways as a very efficient means to move people as do the governments of the rest of Europe, and not as a profit making business, it's not working.

I must admit I'm not a fan of anything Branson or Virgin, so I would tend to put his remarks down to sour grapes - but he has a point. First Group has bid so much for this franchise that it is difficult to see how they're going to make it work, let alone improve the existing service. Several contributors to this thread have hit the nail on the head: no privatised rail company cares for anything whatsoever except profit. I suspect First may milk the franchise for all it's worth for a few years, then claim it's bankrupting them and hand it back to the government. As long as we have this crazy system that lets private companies walk away from their franchises when it suits them, I'm not hopeful about things changing for the better.