On Thursday, 4 January 2018 23:13:25 UTC, Recliner wrote:
Silent Hunter wrote:
On Thursday, 4 January 2018 04:41:12 UTC, Chris Date (CMPD) wrote:
Anyone know if Cex buy second hand trains for cash?

https://mobile.twitter.com/Cogbat/st...52206986379264

So TfL are so hard up that they are having to "sale and lease back" an
unspecified train fleet to generate £875m to pay for the new Picc Line
trains. What a shambles - no capital monies.
(from today's Assembly budget review mtg)

That link doesn't work anymore.

Yes, the tweet that Chris was quoting has apparently been deleted — I
wonder why? It was from Paul Corfield, so perhaps he could enlighten us?

For those who don't know, Paul was previously a senior executive in LU, and
he still follows developments closely and knows how decisions are taken.
Unlike the rest of us who tend to rely on hearsay and supposition, Paul
actually monitors the original source documents.

It doesn't work because I deleted it.

I was a senior manager - I think "executive" is over-egging things. To be accurate I would not claim to be up to date with current decision making as the internal structure of TfL has changed considerably as have many of the people in key positions. I also think the "influence" of City Hall has changed somewhat in the current Mayoralty but that's more a "feeling" that knowledge.

I simply quoted what was said at a London Assembly meeting last week where the Budget and performance Cttee were reviewing the budget for TfL. Either Caroline Pidgeon or Sian Berry queried a capital receipt of £875m in the budget. I think it was Simon Kilonback of TfL who confirmed this was a "Sale and lease back" of an unspecified train fleet. The deal is not yet concluded so there were few other details. Both Mike Brown and Val Shawcross said "this is all standard commercial practice" - which it may well be in some industries. However it is pretty exceptional for TfL where normally a mix of internally generated surplus and govt investment grant pays for new train fleets. I can't recall a train fleet being "flogged off" to pay for a new one. It was Caroline Pidgeon who remarked that the proposal was "crazy" (or some similar term).

There is a webcast of the meeting available on line if anyone wants to sit through it. TfL's bit starts about 110 minutes in from the start. Plenty of other interesting remarks about how the budget has been cut and the impact on passengers and challenges from Assembly Members - especially on buses.

--
Paul C
via Google