TfL in bidding to run Buenos Aires metro

[Tim M]

LNER will not be state operated.

The Managing Director running the East Coast Main Line last time it was state run was a time served railwayman who’s previous job was working as a consultant for Hong Kong MTR. It seemed to be a reasonable success as a result.

 

[w0033944]

good for them - why shouldn't a British company bid to run trains in another country?

Given that many of our utilities (and some of our TOCs) are run by foreign companies, we might as well do the same!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

So the Argentinian government is going to subsidise the British government subsidising the French, German and Dutch governments...

How is it a subsidy? It's a commercial deal, and presumably if it goes through, it'll be because they Argentinian authorities have made a judgement that TfL can run the Buenos Aires metro better then they would be able to, and therefore the money they pay them to do so is worth it. That's not a subsidy, it's payment for a service.

If I buy bread from Tesco, you wouldn't say I'm subsidising Tesco, would you.

 

[Qwerty133]

How is it a subsidy? It's a commercial deal, and presumably if it goes through, it'll be because they Argentinian authorities have made a judgement that TfL can run the Buenos Aires metro better then they would be able to, and therefore the money they pay them to do so is worth it. That's not a subsidy, it's payment for a service.

If I buy bread from Tesco, you wouldn't say I'm subsidising Tesco, would you.

Its no more or less of a commercial deal than any franchise in the UK. If it is acceptable to claim we are subsidising the German, French and Dutch railways when we award contracts to DB, Abellio and Govia as the Unions like to it is equally acceptable to claim any profit making deal for TfL subsidises the operations of our rail network.
Technically the purchase of some items at Tesco does subsidise them selling other items as loss leaders...

 

[transmanche]

Delete

 

[Lockwood]

"Your bis looks to be successful, but there's one other thing we need from you to cement the deal. You know what we want. We don't even need to mention their name."