In article
-septembe
r.org, (Recliner) wrote:

From
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35802274

Quote:

Four Tube line upgrades will be five years late and £886m over budget
after "gross mismanagement" by Transport for London, the London Assembly
says.

TfL spent £85m paying off Bombardier, the firm originally appointed for
the work, whose contract was a "disaster for London", an assembly report
said.

It means District, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines
upgrades are not due to be complete until 2023.

Following publication of the report by the assembly's Budget and
Performance Committee, its chair John Biggs said the Sub-Surface Upgrade
Programme (SSUP) work was not going to be of benefit to passengers "any
time soon".

"This is because TfL has grossly mismanaged its signalling contract with
Bombardier," he said.
"[It] leaves TfL with £886m less to spend on its capital programme than it
thought it had."

TfL's auditors KPMG said in a 2014 report the procurement process was
flawed, with Bombardier's bid taken forward despite the company failing to
show it could do the work.

When it became clear that the firm was failing to deliver, the wording of
the contract meant it had to pay the company for the money it had spent
rather than the value of its work.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said Bombardier - awarded the contract in
2011 - had "totally stuffed it up".

A contract was subsequently awarded to Thales, but the committee said TfL
continued to claim the project could be delivered by 2018.

'It is a scandal'

"No-one in TfL has been held to account, and the mayor, who chairs its
board, serenely and indifferently acts as if a £900m increase to the
budget isn't an issue," said Mr Biggs.

"In government, heads - political or official - would roll after such
financial mismanagement. At TfL the key players have been promoted and
nobody was to blame. It is a scandal."

... Continues


I assume most people here are aware of this mega screw-up (and the fact
that it's actually happened twice), but I don't think I've seen it
reported in the general press before.

Isn't the real problem that TfL believed (whether misled by Bombardier or
otherwise) that they could get the SSL resignalling for £800M-odd less than
it turns our it will cost them?

--
Colin Rosenstiel