Tuesday 27 May 2008

Ken's little eggs

Today is the day that BoJo took over Metronet and it's £1.4bn obligation to upgrade the BCV & SSR lines.

It is also the day when a number of the little eggs that Ken left behind are starting to hatch...


Egg 1: Ken did a deal with the RMT to avert a threatened Metronet strike last month.

An 18th April RMT press release quoted Crowbar Bob as saying:

"We now have in writing undertakings that when the Metronet contracts are taken back in-house by TfL there will be no outsourcing, and that all Metronet staff will be entitled to join the TfL pension fund and enjoy the same travel facilities as other TfL employees".

The Fact Compiler wonders if anyone in BoJo's office has priced up providing all that free travel?

And membership of the TfL pension fund won't exactly come cheap...

Of course many existing Metronet employees (inherited from LUL) are already members of the scheme.

Which means that under the law of unintended consequences the biggest beneficiaries of Ken's largesse will be those Directors and Senior Managers brought into Metronet by the former shareholder companies!


RMT - fighting for the rights of senior private sector employees!

Egg 2: On March 16th TfL announced a £98m deal to bring Croydon Tramlink back in house.

The Fact Compiler again wonders who will pay for this?

Perhaps BoJo could ask the then Transport Commissioner who agreed both deals, one Peter Hendy?