Gordon Brown's flagship sails up shit creek

One of Gordon Brown’s flagship Public Private Partnership schemes looks doomed this morning, as a funding crisis could send the consortium responsible for London’s underground maintenance into administration.

Metronet – a consortium made up of WS Atkins, EDF, Balfour Beatty, Thames Water and Bombardier will hold an emergency meeting later today to consider the next steps for the company. It is facing an overspend bill of £2bn and needs an extra £550m in taxpayer's money to convince its lenders to release urgently needed cash.

In a preliminary ruling on the request for the emergency funds this morning, the rail regulator Chris Bolt made clear that most of Metronet's woes were of its own doing and it did not deserve to be bailed out by the taxpayer.

In a statement, the private company was told that if it "had delivered in an efficient and economic way, its costs would have been lower". Mr Bolt has awarded the company an extra £121m, far short of the financial assistance it needs.

Increase payments requested

The PPP to service London’s 470 miles of track and 150 stations was awarded to Metronet in 1998 when Gordon Brown was Chancellor in a 30 year deal. Metronet receives a monthly fee from the authority responsible for the day to day running of the Underground – Transport for London (TfL). Metronet is asking for an increase in the monthly payments which are effectively paid by taxpayers in a central government grant to TfL.

Metronet has racked up an estimated overspend of £2bn following a series of high-profile slip-ups, including an embarrassing incident last year when it failed to prepare miles of tracks for summer temperatures. Earlier this month, 37 passengers were injured when a Central Line train was derailed by a roll of Metronet-owned tarpaulin that fell on to the tracks.

Our continental neighbours have the enviable ability to run ultra-efficient, safe, cheap transport networks. Despite EU directives which forced the separation of track and operating system, the French and German have maintained a protectionist stance guaranteeing first class services for their passengers and taxpayers.

In the pursuit of political ideology and financial short-termism the criminal gang running the country which gave the railway to the rest of the world has fragmented our transport systems, separating the infrastructure from operations and allowing sub-contracting, and handed over maintenance to private companies motivated by profit.

Source.

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