BEFORE she was shuffled out of David Cameron’s cabinet, the then Transport secretary Justine Greening insisted the West Coast contract process had been robust and fair.

As recently as September 12, her successor, Patrick Loughlin, told the Commons he was satisfied that all bids were considered fairly and with “due dilgence”.

Howls of protest from Sir Richard Branson, the Labour Party and thousands of rail passengers were dismissed with arrogance and complacency.

Now, in a hugely embarrassing midnight announcement, the Government has admitted that its transport secretaries could not have been more wrong in their confidence. The bidding process was not fair or robust – it was riddled with incompetence.

The Government has been forced to scrap its controversial decision to let FirstGroup take over the route from Virgin and three civil servants have been suspended.

It is a shambles and it is now impossible to have any confidence in the Government’s rail franchising policy, including plans to hand over the East Coast route to a private operator from December next year.

Investigating the flaws in the system, and rebuilding shattered confidence, will take time so it is hard to see how the timetable for the East Coast plans will be unaffected.

At a time of crippling austerity, this whole sorry saga, involving civil servants’ time and legal fees, must have cost taxpayers millions of pounds on top of the £40m having to be paid back to the bidders.

With the process now having to start all over again, it is no wonder passengers feel so angry at having to pay skyhigh fares.