Topic: | Re:Re:Update on the delayed District/Piccadilly upgrades | |
Posted by: | Thomas Barry | |
Date/Time: | 23/04/15 17:07:00 |
"Basically TfL selected the cheapest product from a supplier who said they could meet the dates, but didn't do sufficient technical due diligence if it would actually work in London. Too much bean counting, not enough engineering" I read that too, and it's highly interesting. The political background was that demands from City Hall were for a cheap as possible system that could be installed without weekend closures. Bombardier's bid claimed to meet this by offering an off the shelf product (used in Madrid) that wouldn't need extensive development and with a record of being installed without closures. This was not only not checked to see if it was true (it wasn't) but the low tender price it allowed distorted the weighting system (which was flawed/warped to prioritise cost over technical matters) enough to overrule basic 'will it work?' engineering considerations, with the consequences we see today. Naturally they are going to have to pay the only remaining company that can do the job whatever they ask, and rather remarkably no one has apparently been held responsible and the same people are still in the same jobs. Bombardier and the Madrid metro had actually taken certain high ranking TfL suits out to see their system in action, which is interesting: http://www.metromadrid.es/en/comunicacion/prensa/2012/May/noticia8.html The KPMG report is here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/fpc-20140717-part-1-item10-sup-atc-lessons-learnt.pdf The original PR from TfL is instructive here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2011/june/london-underground-awards-major-signalling-contract and includes this hostage to fortune : 'The new contract and the efficiencies it will deliver means Transport for London will save hundreds of millions of pounds, now and in future, on the original PPP solution'. Yeah, right. I'm reading the full article now - TfL and Bombardier knew three years ago that 2018 as a date wasn't going to happen. I recall as recently as January TfL posters boasting that the Tube upgrade was 'on schedule'. I really don't like being lied to by public servants. |