Justine Greening to face criticism over West Coat Main Line fiasco Ministers announced that First Group won the London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow franchise back in August last year. However, Virgin Trains, which had operated the line for 15 years challenged the decision. Ms Greening, who had been tipped for high office, lost her job as transport secretary a month later in the Cabinet reshuffle. She was moved to the Department for International Development, but remains in the Cabinet. An earlier report into the aborted rail franchise by Sam Laidlaw, the chief executive of the energy company Centrica, found the DFT had shown "a lack of transparency, inadequate planning and preparation, as well as a complex and confusing organisational structure with weak quality assurance and insufficient governance oversight." Patrick McLoughlin, the current Transport Secretary, has said there had been "unacceptable flaws" and "serious problems" with the way the franchise had been awarded.