Trainline sues Transport Secretary over ‘secret' deal for state-owned rail operator
Trainline is suing Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, over the alleged backdoor award of a £32m ticketing contract by state-owned operator LNER.
LNER, which has been run by the Department for Transport (DfT) since 2018, recently extended a ticketing sales platform contract it uses without offering rivals such as Trainline the chance to bid for the 10-year deal.
Trainline claims that the failure to seek alternative bids means that Ms Alexander and LNER ignored due process as well as the best interests of passengers and the taxpayer.
It alleges that the publication of the award on the Government's procurement website on December 23 was also too opaque because it effectively buried the news during Christmas week, limiting the ability of other parties to respond.
LNER awarded the contract for the central booking engine that supports its digital ticket sales to Australia's Vix Technology.
Trainline has its own rival division providing a similar 'white label' service to train operators and would have expected to compete for the work had it been tendered.
It is understood that the company, which has filed the claim at the Technology and Construction Court against LNER and the Transport Secretary, will claim that a direct award of the contract was not permissible under procurement law because the terms were being varied in scope, duration and beneficiaries.
The terms of the award also mean that the ticketing platform used by LNER, which operates between London Kings Cross and Scotland via Leeds and Newcastle, could be extended across the rail network.
Rail unions have pressed Labour to squeeze out third-party ticket bookers such as Trainline, with the RMT accusing the company of engaging in 'relentless profiteering.'
While the Government plans to simplify fares and ticketing as part of its nationalisation of the railway, it has nevertheless said that there would still be a need for 'an innovative and competitive third-party retail market.'
Trainline even hosted the launch of the nationalisation policy by Louise Haigh, the then-transport secretary, last year.
Labour subsequently ruled out establishing a national website and app to promote cheaper fares in competition with the firm.
However, it reversed that guidance in January to say that a plan to bring together the ticket websites of individual operators was now in the pipeline.
Though the DfT maintained that private-sector retailers would be able to compete in an open and fair manner, shares of Trainline, which has 18m customers, have since fallen by almost one third.
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