Metronet
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Templar House, 81-87 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6NU |
| Key people | Andie Harper (CEO), Mark Cooper, Stephen M. Hall |
| Industry | Railway |
| Employees | approx. 6000 |
| Website | www.metronetrail.com |
Metronet Rail was the brand of a public-private partnership within the London Underground group that was responsible for the maintenance, renewal, and upgrade of the infrastructure on nine London Underground lines. This includes track, trains, signals, civil work and stations. From 18 July 2007 to 26 May 2008, the company was in administration and had to be bailed out by the government. On 27 May 2008, the company was transferred back into public ownership under the authority of Transport for London.[1] In June 2009 the National Audit Office estimated that the failure of the Metronet PPP contract cost the taxpayer up to £410m adding that "most of the blame for Metronet's collapse lay with the consortium itself."[2] The administration complete, the joint administrators petitioned the High Court of Justice for the winding-up of the company on the 3 November 2009, the petition is due to be herd on the 10 December 2009.[3]
On Sunday 7 December 2008 Metronet Rail employees were transferred to LUL. From 18th April 2009 the company name ceased to exist and is now fully integrated with London Underground and now operates with the name as London Underground Limited.
Before it went into PPP Administration, it had five shareholders:
- Atkins,
- Balfour Beatty,
- Bombardier,
- EDF Energy, and
- Thames Water.
The Metronet Rail brand consists of LUL Nominee BCV Limited, trading as Metronet Rail BCV, and LUL Nominee SSL Limited, trading as Metronet Rail SSL: the group operates under the common name of Metronet Rail.
From January 2003 to May 2008, the London Underground was operated as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), where the infrastructure and support services were maintained by private companies but the London Underground was still publicly owned and operated by Transport for London (TfL). Metronet Rail won a 30-year contract for the following tube and sub-surface lines:
BCV (tube) lines
SSL (sub-surface) lines
Under the terms of the contract, Metronet Rail agreed to provide London Underground (LU) with trains, stations, and related infrastructure to the standards and performance levels required to give the travelling public a reliable service in a safe, efficient, and economic manner. LU paid the Metronet Rail consortium an infrastructure service charge (ISC) - a monthly payment increased or abated to reflect the network's performance. Revenue to the consortium was reduced if service fell below benchmark levels and deductions suffered for poor performance were at twice the rate of the increase in revenue for improved performance.
Metronet Rail had promised to modernise and refurbish 150 stations by 2012, with £17 billion invested over the course of the 30-year contract. Within their maintenance and capital-project management remit they had 347 trains, over 471 miles (758 km) of track, 155 stations, 77 miles (124 km) of deep tubes, and over 2000 points, crossings, and bridges.
In November 2006, Metronet were heavily criticised by the PPP arbiter, Chris Bolt, over their performance from 2003 to 2006. His analysis included criticism that Metronet had not performed in an economic or efficient manner, and had failed to follow good industry practice. [4]
The remaining London Underground lines, (Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly) are still maintained under a PPP arrangement by Tube Lines .
On 3rd of December 2009, Metronet Rail will become part of London Underground. This move has been advised until a long term solution is sought. This has been welcomed by many of the Metronet employees, however the question remains to what happens to Tube Lines and whether Tube maintenance contracts should be run by private or public companies after the Metronet experiment with private investment ended an expensive failure.
[edit] Financial crisis
On 17 July 2007 it was reported[5] that Metronet was "teetering on the brink of administration". The situation has arisen because it has received only £121m out of the £551m it needs to cover cost over-runs. By contrast, Tube Lines, the other PPP company, has brought in almost all of its works on time and on budget[6].
On 18 July 2007, the company went into administration.[7]. Alan Robert Bloom, Roy Bailey, Margaret Elizabeth Mills and Stephen John Harris were appointed special PPP administrators. [8] It was subsequently bailed out by the UK Government at a cost of £2 billion.[9] On 27 May 2008, Metronet came out of administration and was transferred to Transport for London and more recently London Underground.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/8376.aspx
- ^ http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2009/06/05/68403/metronet-failure-cost-taxpayer-upto-410m.html
- ^ The London Gazette, 11 November 2009, pp. 19523
- ^ Tube and train services disrupted BBC News, retrieved 12 January 2007
- ^ Metronet on brink of collapse after plea on costs is rejected, The Times, 17 July 2007
- ^ Partnership that turned sour, The Times, 27 June 2007
- ^ "Metronet calls in administrators". BBC. 18 July 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6903977.stm. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
- ^ The London Gazette, 11 November 2009, pp. 19523
- ^ "Govt in £2bn Metronet bail-out". http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/transport/govt-in-2bn-metronet-bail-out-$1197787.htm.
[edit] External links
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Wikinews has related news: UK tube company Metronet goes into administration |
