As Leonard Cohen used to sing: I've got a little secret!
A tune evidently close to the heart of Eye favourite Stephen 'Gone-native' Hammond, as evidenced by this written answer given on the 26th November:
Kate Hoey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 4 November 2013, Official Report,
column 45W, on railways: south west, for what reasons lease costs for
rolling stock are considered to be commercially sensitive.
Stephen Hammond:
The leasing costs for rolling stock are the result of negotiations
between two private sector commercial entities, the train operating
company and the rolling stock leasing company. Putting such information
in the public sphere would give advantage to each party's competitors
and hinder future negotiations between such commercial entities
throughout the industry.
Hmm... Advantage and Hinder?
Surely the name of an act in this year's DfT Christmas panto?
No matter!
Of course the real hindrance 'to future negotiations' on allocation of scarce trains is done by DfT's random-rolling-stock-cascade-generator, which inhibits the effective operation of the entire train leasing market.
A point made transparently clear from section 25 on page 9 of the summary section of the Competition Commission's 2007 'Rolling Stock Leasing market investigation'.
Go figure!
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