THE RMT union is claiming to have seen a copy of the forthcoming offer document for reprivatising the East Coast franchise, which it says reveals 'a systematic and politically motivated devaluation of the performance and achievements of ECML in the public sector in order to justify a third gamble on the private option'.
However, the Department for Transport has called the RMT's claims 'misleading scaremongering'.
Protests have been staged today as the DfT prepares to take the first step towards returning the Intercity East Coast operation to the private sector in early 2015, before the General Election in May.
East Coast passed to the control of the Department for Transport via its subsidiary Directly Operated Railways in late 2009, after the failure of the previous National Express franchise.
The DfT has already said that East Coast will be offered as a 'going concern', which means that the successful bidder will acquire the existing operating company rather than setting up a new one.
The RMT said the leaked document reveals that service quality is at risk. Some parts of the document have been redacted according to the union, deleting statistics which make a favourable comparison of East Coast against other, privatised, intercity operators.
The union said the manipulation of the data was intended to 'play down the success of public ownership'. One point which the union alleged has been removed is that East Coast is the carrier of the highest number of passengers per train kilometre among the British rail franchises, and one of the highest in Europe.
The RMT claimed that the leaked copy contained a note that suggests ‘we remove this graphic if we want to avoid references to competitors'.
The union dubbed this 'the most blatant and cynical piece of political engineering to try and justify hiving off the line for private gain'. It added that the draft gives bidders 'the option of establishing an intermediate class between Standard and First’.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "This leaked document, coming on the day of union protests at Parliament aimed at keeping the East Coast in public ownership, is political dynamite which blows the lid off the lengths to which the Government are prepared to go to bulldoze through reprivatisation before the next election.
"The fact that the public option is putting over a billion pounds back into the treasury, while improving services and delivering more capacity, has been cynically airbrushed out of the final document in a disgraceful piece of political chicanery which must be called in for scrutiny to hold back this full tilt dash for privatisation.
"If the Government are allowed to get away with this, passengers can expect third class services, shoddy performance and higher fares while the private companies get a gold-plated, eleven year franchise that will enable them to launder hundreds of millions of pounds into the pockets of their shareholders. It stinks and it must be stopped."
The Department for Transport said: “This is ill informed scaremongering from the RMT. By choosing to release inaccurate information, they are misleading the public. We have no intention of requiring a 'third class' service, reducing performance levels, or in any way devaluing this vital railway. As the independent Brown Review concluded, franchising works for passengers and taxpayers alike.“