Darling urged to act in FirstGroup row

The Government is coming under pressure to intervene over the exclusion of FirstGroup from bidding for a key train franchise.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and his senior officials at Transport for London (TfL) are said to be "livid" that the company was omitted from the short-list to take over the new Greater Anglia region.

One source at TfL said all options are being considered to persuade Richard Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), to change his mind, including a direct appeal to Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport.

Mr Livingstone's senior managers argue that the FirstGroup's Great Eastern operation, one of the three franchises that will make up the new Greater Anglia region, is one of the best performing train companies in the London area and should be allowed to bid for the enlarged franchise.

Ian Brown, managing director of TfL, said Great Eastern had been running a highly successful operation and had met all the performance criteria required of it. He pointed out that Great Eastern laid on an "excellent" metro service between London's Liverpool Street and Shenfield, Essex in the absence of a London Underground route and had responded positively to the "fiasco" which had recently kept much of the Central Line closed. "If the operation was crap I wouldn't mind. It is a very good operation. It's not as if the country is brimming over with good rail services," he said.

Senior managers at TfL have signed a partnership deal with the SRA over the future of its strategy in the London area, but they are known to want more input into franchise decisions.

FirstGroup last week expressed "astonishment" at being dropped from the bidding and said it was considering legal action, but an SRA spokesman said it had "shot itself in the foot" and said there was no question of readmitting it.

The short-listed bidders are National Express, Arriva and GB Railways. National Express run West Anglia services but wants to reduce the number of franchises it runs and GB Railways is the smallest operator in the region. Arriva was recently removed as the incumbent at Merseyrail.