Civil service apology to Justine Greening over West Coast franchise fiasco Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has in recent days said responsibility for the fiasco lay "only and squarely within the Department for Transport." A study from accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers highlighted crucial flaws in the handling of the bid that led to his decision to pull the contract. They included the absence or loss of vital computations showing how civil servants arrived at their decision and the failure to examine the risks around GDP forecasts for the final three years of the contract. The Guardian reports that forecasts of passenger numbers and the calculation of inflation by Virgin and First Group were incorrect. Mr McLoughlin will now decide who will run the line in the interim period before the bidding process starts again.