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The Department for Transport cancelled its provisional decision to award the InterCity West Coast franchise to First Group and, with it, the franchise competition. It also paused three other franchise competitions: Essex Thameside, Great Western and Thameslink. This report sets out the chronology of events, commenting on the wider lessons for the Department, drawing from our knowledge of the Department and our past reports. We intend to carry out a further examination of the costs and consequences to the Department of cancelling the competition in due course.