The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) is partly to blame for the "fiasco" of Connex's south-eastern rail franchise and the early termination of its contract, a government committee has said.

The public accounts committee's report on the franchise found that Connex and the SRA did not communicate enough and that the SRA was slow to realise the difficulties Connex was in.

"Wishful thinking marked the acceptance of Connex south-eastern’s franchise bid," said Edward Leigh, the committee's chairman.

"The parties couldn't communicate properly and felt no trust in each other. The SRA was slow to realise that Connex was running into money problems and Connex didn't rush to make this clear to the SRA."

Connex was granted the 15-year south-eastern franchise in 1996 but it was terminated in 2003 after the SRA decided it was not doing enough to improve poor performance.

However, the SRA was criticised in the report for giving £183 million in subsidies "no strings attached" while Connex continued to have late-running trains.

The committee did praise the transfer of the franchise to South Eastern Trains but said that there were lessons to be learnt for the future, adding that allowing "hope to triumph over experience" in franchise bids should never happen again.

The Liberal Democrats blamed both the Conservatives, who originally sold-off the railways, and Labour for creating a privatisation "fiasco".

Lib Dems transport spokesman Alistair Carmichael said that the Connex affair was a "folly" that cost both taxpayers and travellers.