Transport for London

[jeffh]

Read an interesting article over the weekend

With all the hoo-hah the Labour Party are making over nationalising the railways I was surprised that Transport for London are about to take one step towards privatisation.

The current national railway model is -

1  Track & infrastructure is owned and maintained by Network Rail, which is owned by us
2  Rolling Stock is privately owned then leased to the Railway Companies
3  Routes are operated by Railway Companies then they either pay a charge to the government (as with Stagecoach/Virgin) or the government pays the company but receives all fares
   (as with Southern) - incidentally that's why Southern can cope with the strike action - they are still being paid by the government.

The Crossrail project was costed to include new rolling stock, which was duly obtained in the form of Class 345 Electric Multiple Units.  Now the project is nearing completion TfL, under the control of Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, are now looking towards selling these trains to a 3rd party to lease them back.  As built Crossrail was wholly owned by the government, but if they sell the Rolling Stock then lease back they are one step towards privatisation, which is not keeping the Labour line