TSSA: Our Tube PPP concerns have been vindicated
Transport union TSSA is claiming that its concerns about the dangers of using public private partnerships (PPPs) on the Tube have been vindicated.
TSSA assistant general secretary Manuel Cortes said that under PPP passengers’ needs will always come after profit.
This morning, London Underground’s chief executive raised concerns that the PPP incentive is failing to deliver satisfactory improvements to the transport system.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Tim O’Toole said that the two private consortia -Metronet and Tube Lines had done little to improve the tube’s infrastructure. “The improvements are not happening fast enough. No one wants to live this way,” said Mr O’Toole.
“If we’re not delivering change, we could well see people ask: ‘Why are we continuing to pour money into this arrangement?'”
Mr O’Toole agreed there had been some improvements to rolling stock and track, but vital work is still needed to improve signals on the network and called for a more aggressive, less profit-driven, approach by the two companies.
The PPP scheme awarded Metronet and Tube Lines 30-year maintenance and upgrade contracts worth around £15.7 billion. Around 25 per cent of the costs are meet by the private sector, Government grants contribute 60 per cent and fares 15 per cent.
The sell-off of the Tube was always highly controversial, with unions, backbench politicians and the Mayor Ken Livingstone mounting an unsuccessful campaign to get the project shelved.
Tube Lines’ chief executive Terry Morgan dismissed Mr O’Toole’s concerns and insisted that the tube network has improved since the PPP was introduced. But, he also accepted that the companies did look for profit, saying in the same article: “We’re a business. I don’t know of any successful business which doesn’t have the objective of achieving a profit.”
The Tube union says that these comments vindicate its stance against PPP.
Mr Cortes said: “Terry Morgan has admitted what we always said about PPP – that profit will come first and passengers second.
“And Tim O’Toole is right to raise public scepticism over PPP when it is failing to deliver the world-class tube Londoners need and deserve.
“Private firms will always put their profits before a better service and seek to cut costs. This is exactly what the tube doesn’t need. With PPP costing the taxpayer more than £1 billion in its first year, the contracts clearly aren’t working. They need urgent review to reign in excessive profits and deliver a better return for taxpayers.”
