wrote:

www.waspies.net wrote:

Makes you wonder what LUL/TfL's involvement is other that to slag
Metronet off now and again. Why doesn't LUL actually start to impose
some sanctions?

Kevin

They do but a £1million fine is nowt to that lot, what TFL need is the
power to sack them, but the contracts were stitched up by one G Brown so
it would be far too expensive to do so.

Won't life be great if G Brown becomes PM!

I'd be surprised if a £1million fine PER DAY were "now't to that lot"!
That's the sort of contract that should have been established.
Moreover, th majority of the £1 million ought to be distributed to the
PASSENGERS who suffer as a result of the breaches of contract and not
just go back into T.F.L. coffers.

As has already been pointed out, this is not the fault of TfL or the
Mayor. Ken Livingstone was strongly opposed to the PPP, but TfL did not
get control of London Underground Limited (LUL) from central government
until 2003 [1] - by which time LUL, by direction of their previously
owner HM Government, had already signed and sealed all the PPP
contracts.

As you can imagine once TfL was in charge there was a bit of a clear
out of those senior managers at LUL who'd worked on these contracts.

Nontheless, TfL does try and have a good working relationship with the
infracos (MetroNet and Tube Lines). It would appear that, especially in
the case of MetroNet, they are not rewarded for this.

This is a slightly complicated situation for the uninterested
Underground passenger to get their head around, but once you
understands it you realises it's really not Mayor Livingstone's fault -
there's not much point in blaming him for this situation. Arguably,
given his political clout (especially with central government) and his
pragmatic nature, Livingstone is perhaps the best person to have as
Mayor in order to try and sort this mess out.


Clearly the likes of Balfour Beatty etc. don't like paying millions in
fines, which is presumably why they managed successfully to appeal
their recent sentence in one of their other recent disasters - was it
Potters Bar or Hatfield, I forget?

It was with regards to Hatfield:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5149732.stm


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[1] BBC News story from 2003 - "Mayor takes control of Tube"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3066159.stm