THE government faced accusations yesterday of allowing Virgin to “bully their way” into a monopoly after the firm was handed the West Coast rail franchise until March 2017.

Virgin Trains previously lost out to FirstGroup in the battle for a new 13-year West Coast franchise, but the process was scrapped by the Department for Transport due to errors in the bidding process.

It resulted in a temporary deal allowing Virgin to run the West Coast service until November.

Virgin will pay £430 million over the course of the contract, a 58 per cent increase on the £98.1m a year it currently pays, the government said.

Virgin Trains executive chairman Patrick McCall said: “We’re delighted to have reached a deal after some tough negotiations with the Department for Transport.

“It puts the problems of 2012 firmly behind us and shows the clear benefits of a well-run franchise system.”

But acting general secretary of transport union RMT Mick Cash said: “The collapse of the tendering process on the West Coast has allowed Virgin to bully itself into a monopoly provider position, hoovering up repeated extensions while the public-sector option is ignored.

“Rail franchising is a one-way ticket to the bank for greedy shareholders as these companies promise the earth and deliver just the bare bones in the interest of profit. The great private rail rip-off continues.”

And rail union TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: “Virgin is being rewarded for failure on the West Coast line. We have seen fares rise by 245 per cent on this route since privatisation and overcrowding on routes into London despite taxpayers paying £9 billion to upgrade the line.”