Bless those economists

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Mathematical view of Tube 'does not add up'

Kevin Maguire
Friday November 16, 2001
The Guardian

Private operators taking over a part-privatised London Underground would
get up to £90m a year in bonuses while failing to improve
services under a plan to turn the network into a complex mathematical
equation.

The three groups in line to run routes will start earning rewards even
if the overall performance got 2% worse, with the awards of as
much as £30m extra each triggered by maintaining trains in their current
state.

Senior figures in the mayor, Ken Livingstone's Transport for London body
accused the transport secretary, Stephen Byers, of
watering down targets to smooth the way for the part-privatisation.

TfL legal experts said they had been stunned to discover thousands of
formulae intended to regulate the £13bn public private
partnership.

Contracts for the 30-year PPP run to 2,800 pages and the mathematical
models cover everything from litter to noise levels and
delays.

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,595356,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx