Paul Scott wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message . com, at
03:52:52 on Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Boltar remarked:
The winner of the London Overground concession is MTR Laing according
Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.
But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business was
sold off years ago. The Evening Standard in London is apparently saying
the Chinese have won the bid, though. Not sure what that means.

I looked up Laing's site earlier, and Laing Rail is only a small part of
what they do, and as you say they don't seem to describe themselves as in
construction at all, much more infastructure project management and
operators. I guess they must subcontract any actual building work, I don't
think they actually built any of the Evergreen project on the Chiltern lines
for instance. There is also a Laing Homes - but I can't see any connection
with them at all.

Paul



Laing-OBrouke (may be spelt wrong) are currently building a huge gas
main across Devon

On Jun 19, 7:59 pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote in message

...

In message . com, at
03:52:52 on Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Boltar remarked:
The winner of the London Overground concession is MTR Laing according

Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.

But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business was
sold off years ago. The Evening Standard in London is apparently saying
the Chinese have won the bid, though. Not sure what that means.

I looked up Laing's site earlier, and Laing Rail is only a small part of
what they do, and as you say they don't seem to describe themselves as in
construction at all, much more infastructure project management and
operators. I guess they must subcontract any actual building work, I don't
think they actually built any of the Evergreen project on the Chiltern lines
for instance. There is also a Laing Homes - but I can't see any connection
with them at all.


The Laing Group used to include John Laing Construction and Laing
Homes, a major civil engineering and building contractor and a major
housebuilder respectively.

John Laing Construction built the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which
has staged the FA Cup and League Cup football finals for the last few
years while the new Wembley Stadium was built.

The Millennium Stadium was completed on time and within budget.
However, it was a fixed price contract and technical problems meant
that it cost John Laing Construction over £40 million more to build
than they got paid.

This very large loss was more than the company could stand. The
remains of John Laing Construction were sold in their entirety to the
O'Rourke Group and now trade as Laing O'Rourke. Laing Homes was sold
to George Wimpey and continued to trade under the same name (although
that may change as Wimpey has recently agreed to merge with Taylor
Woodrow).

This left Chiltern Railways plus facilities management and PFI
(Private Finance Initiative) projects as the main activities of the
John Laing group.

MTR is the Mass Transit Railway Corporation of Hong Kong, China. MTR
procured and operate Hong Kong's mass transit railway system including
the high speed lines to the airport.

On 19 Jun, 14:45, Roland Perry wrote:
In message . com, at
03:52:52 on Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Boltar remarked:

The winner of the London Overground concession is MTR Laing according

Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.

But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business
was sold off years ago.

Certainly becoming unusual for a rail franchise not to be awarded to a
bus company.

--
gordon

On 22 Jun, 13:10, " wrote:
On 19 Jun, 14:45, Roland Perry wrote:

In message . com, at
03:52:52 on Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Boltar remarked:

The winner of the LondonOvergroundconcession is MTR Laing according

Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.

But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business
was sold off years ago.

Certainly becoming unusual for a rail franchise not to be awarded to a
bus company.

Perhaps I spoke to soon. Shouldn't be any surprise that the
consolidation of the rail operating industry into four or so big
players is progressing apace as it did with the bus industry before
it.

--
gordon

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007, wrote:

On 22 Jun, 13:10, " wrote:
On 19 Jun, 14:45, Roland Perry wrote:

In message . com, at
03:52:52 on Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Boltar remarked:

The winner of the LondonOvergroundconcession is MTR Laing according

Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.

But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business
was sold off years ago.

Certainly becoming unusual for a rail franchise not to be awarded to a
bus company.

Perhaps I spoke to soon. Shouldn't be any surprise that the
consolidation of the rail operating industry into four or so big players
is progressing apace

YWell, with Britain's rail network divided between the Great Western,
London, Midland and Scottish, London and North Eastern and Southern
railways, we should see considerably greater efficiency.

Oh, hang on, wrong century ...

tom

--
Tech - No Babble

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:52:52 -0700, Boltar
wrote:

On 19 Jun, 10:09, Paul Corfield wrote:
The winner of the London Overground concession is MTR Laing according

Sounds like a sensible decision. Why pick people who already have
years of experience running railways when you can pick a building
firm.

I would say it is an eminently sensible decision. I appreciate you are
universally cynical about everything to do with London's transport but I
think it is misplaced on this occasion. Chiltern (laing Rail) seem to be
one of the better franchise operators and are prepared to invest
independently when they have time for a payback.

Having used MTR many, many times in Hong Kong with no delays whatsoever
for any reason within their control (I had 1 delay of less than 5 mins
because someone trespassed on the track) I consider them to be an
exceptional operation. If they can transfer even 50% of their knowledge
and operational skill then we will see a vast improvement. I am sure
they are aiming to achieve far more than that as this will be a showcase
for other expansion bids so they will want to make Overground work. I
think TfL will also wish to make sure they succeed as they will want to
use this concession as a basis for comparison with other TOCs and to
strengthen TfL's hand in increasing its influence over other rail
operations around London.
--
Paul C