Mark Pack

Boris Johnson and Transport for London’s financial secrecy over Oyster

By | Tue 30th December 2008 - 11:35 am

An interesting little question and answer from the London Assembly:

Q. What has been the cost to the taxpayer of TfL [Transport for London] buying ownership of the Oyster brand? (Caroline Pidgeon)

A. Under the terms of the recent agreement between TfL, Electronic Data Systems and Cubic Transportation Systems TfL agreed to treat this information as being commercially confidential.

Certainly getting ownership of the Oyster brand could bring lots of benefits (though it raises the question of how it ended up in private hands in the first place and on what terms).

Spending 50p on it would be  a bargain. Spending £500 million would be a rip-off. The problem is, we don’t know whether or not a good deal was negotiated in our name. The figure is secret because TfL (proprietor: one Boris Johnson) agreed to keep it so – and Boris Johnson is happy with this state of affairs.

In other words – terribly sorry old bean, I know you might wondering whether we’re spending your shillings properly, but it’s all a jolly big secret.

Hat-tip: London Reconnections


Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in London.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Raw
    @ Nick Baird Well said, Nick, especially in your last paragraph. Some things have changed a fair old bit since I first joined the Liberal Party way back in 196...
  • Nick Baird
    @Peter Martin - the point I tried to make above is that comparison isn't fair or reasonable. If that same individual eligible for £25k to £27.5k of benefits m...
  • Simon McGrath
    This is a tragic event with a terrible outcome for Dr Arday and his family. On the issue about plagiarism in Dr Arday's PhD, people can judge for themselve...
  • Hywel
    It seems to me that a bunch of people with racist intent went looking for a target until they found one with enough question marks that they could turn into a r...
  • David Raw
    If, .......... "We have the plan",........... why do we never hear anything about it ?...