This week on Edelman Editions Stefan Stern, director of strategy meets with Chris Rumfitt, managing director of Edelman’s public affairs practice and Christian Wolmar, journalist and broadcaster to discuss this week’s West Coast Main Line debacle.

On December 9th 2012 the franchise for Virgin Trains on the West Coast Main Line expires and there is currently no company in line to take over responsibility. The franchise was originally handed to FirstGroup, but this week it has been revealed that the bidding process was completely flawed and FirstGroup are no longer in a position to assume responsibility. Together Stefan, Chris and Christian discuss how and what went wrong within government during this process and what the future may hold for the West Coast Main Line.

Podcast Participants:

	Chair: Stefan Stern, Director of Strategy, Edelman Stefan has been writing and commenting on business and management for the past two decades. He wrote the Financial Times’s management column for over four years before joining Edelman in August 2010 as its new Director of Strategy. In October he was appointed Visiting Professor in management practice at the Cass business school.
	Chris Rumfitt, Managing Director of Public Affairs, Edelman Chris is Managing Director of Edelman’s UK Public Affairs practice and specialises in complex issues management challenges in sectors including energy, transport, property, construction and infrastructure.
	Christian Wolmar, Journalist Christian is an award winning writer and broadcaster specialising in transport and is the author of a series of books on railway history. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and railway events, and regularly appears on TV and radio. Christian is acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading commentators on transport matters. He broadcasts frequently on radio and TV and is a regular pundit on the national news bulletins of terrestrial channels and Sky, as well as having appeared on virtually every radio news programme from World at One and the World Tonight to Radio One’s NewsBeat and LBC.