Richard Branson on Virgin Trains losing rail franchise

Sir Richard Branson said Virgin Trains was set to "back out" of future bids to operate rail services in the UK after losing the franchise to run the West Coast mainline.

He said the government "made the wrong decision again" and the Department for Transport had "a lot of questions" to answer for choosing rival FirstGroup over his firm.

He told The World at One that Whitehall would end up receiving a smaller income than it would had Virgin won the 14-year deal to run trains from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

Virgin has previously lost the CrossCountry franchise running services from Birmingham New Street to major cities in England and Wales, outside London.