On May 8, 1:38*am, Mizter T wrote:

On May 7, 11:59*pm, Bruce wrote:

Quite a surprise except to those who knew about the negotiations:

"Tube Lines' shareholders agree £310M buyout deal with TfL

Shareholders of London Underground contractor Tube Lines have tonight
agreed a buyout deal with Transport for London (TfL) for the PPP
arrangement with a price tag of £310M.

The dramatic decision follows months of rows between the two parties
over the cost of the upgrade and maintenance of the Piccadilly,
Northern and Jubilee Lines over the next seven and a half years.

However, the parties confirmed that Amey will continue to provide
management and maintenance during that period under the existing
contract with Tube Lines and that Bechtel will remain for an interim
period to ensure a smooth transition of the capital improvement
programme into TfL."

First Metronet, now Tube Lines. *The effective end of the PPP!

Blimey - didn't see that coming, not at all!

More from Tom Edwards of BBC London:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mindthega...inning_of.html
or via http://tinyurl.com/2w8w6xx

He quite reasonably asks where TfL will find the £310 million from to
buy Tube Lines, given that TfL said they were going to struggle
finding the £400 or so million for the Tube Lines funding gap (as
determined by the PPP arbiter).

Wouldn't be a massive surprise to hear that some of the Underground
network's upgrades will be put on ice, given the already stretched
state of TfL's finances - given the state of (central govt) public
finances (which TfL is heavily reliant on), things aren't about to get
any easier any time soon.