Virgin Trains has today issued the following statement in response to the news its bid for the West Coast Partnership has been disqualified. 

A Virgin Trains spokesperson said: “We’re very disappointed by the DfT’s unexpected decision. We’ve led the industry for more than twenty years with our ground-breaking innovations, such as automatic delay repay, and award-winning customer service. 

“We’re studying the DfT’s decision carefully to understand why they’ve taken this action and would like to reassure all our customers that they can still book and travel as normal.