On Thu, 7 Dec 2006 01:13:41 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Paul Corfield wrote:

I think the Mayor has been convinced that an operating concession can
work (witness DLR and the fact there has been no change to the operating
concept there or the willingness of TfL to procure extensions via
design, build, maintain contracts). Therefore he is happy to see a new
operation be established without the baggage of decades worth of LU
culture - some of which is good, some of which is dreadful.

Intriguing; i'd sort of assumed the NLR would be run directly by London
Rail, or some other division of TfL. Cheers for the interesting insight,
Paul!

The contract will be administered by London Rail in much the same way as
the core DLR management administer the contracts with Serco (main DLR
service provision), the Lewisham concessionaire (infrastructure south of
Crossharbour) and the LCA concessionaire (infrastructure east of Canning
Town). Not sure whether the Woolwich link will be a separate concession
in its own right or a variation to the LCA contract as it is with the
same consortium members.

Apparently the NLR arrangement is a concession rather than a franchise
because TfL takes the revenue risk for the NLR network it takes over
next year. I think it is going to be a very interesting operation
because it will create another comparator to the DLR form of operation,
LU and TOCs. If performance and ridership really do improve I think
there will be some interesting messages emanating from TfL towers. If
infrastructure performance is poor or costs too high then expect the
hallowed words of "vertical integration" to start being bandied about
(as with Merseyrail).

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!