PPP abandoned – the last nail in the coffin for Brown
May 10th, 2010
When one looks back down the years at Ken’s Mayoralty, his struggles with the Labour Party at the time of trying to get elected as London Mayor, his fight with Gordon Brown over PPP and Ken’s attempts to keep tube funding public, his hiring of Bob Kiley (at some expense) from New York, to advise on how to go about running the tube efficiently, it is with a feeling of something bordering on despair to say “I told you so”.
From the London Evening Standard
Ken’s battle to save the tube from the hands of private contractors, and more importantly to ensure that all the funding went to the infrastructure and not divided into the pockets of directors and shareholders, rumbled on for years intertwined with his own struggles with the Labour party and his standing eventually as an independent for Mayor.
This from Londonist
Today he must feel vindicated but (saddened at the waste), that his prophetic point of view has been so thoroughly proved. What a waste of money in lawyers fees and contractors fees Londoners have paid for this mess.
Today the Guardian prints the news as follows:-
Transport for London (TfL) announced late on Friday evening the end of the controversial Public Private Partnership (PPP) on London Underground, saying it entered into an agreement to buy the shares of Bechtel and Amey (Ferrovial) from the Tube Lines consortium for £310 million.