THE decision of the transport committee of MPs to investigate the latest East Coast Mainline (ECML) rail franchise fiasco should only receive a conditional welcome.

If the inquisitors intend to go no further than the usual platitudes about “learning the lessons,” “fixing a broken market,” “making bids more transparent” and “making sure nothing like this ever happens again,” they may as well write their report now and spare themselves any further effort.

We’ve heard all the excuses for the repeated failures of rail privatisation before. We’ve even heard them in relation to the ECML franchise itself — twice.