As I write this, there are nefarious goings-on in a hotel in South Kensington where a seminar is taking place to discuss the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) on London Underground. This is not a gathering of transport experts, academics and politicians. It is a gathering of high-flying bankers and business people, the vultures whose interest in transport is limited to selective asset-stripping.
The seminar was organised months ago, even before the date of the May election was known. Presumably, the financiers understood that, no matter who formed the next government, there would be guaranteed rich pickings on the Underground.
John Prescott is not hiding the fact that he has long been an advocate of private financing of public transport. He has always taken credit for the original idea of PFI, which the Labour Party endorsed. As far back as 1994, Frank Dobson (then shadow Transport Secretary) addressed the RMT's Annual General Meeting, taking place during the prolonged signal workers' dispute. He could not find time in his address to give unconditional support to the signal workers. However, he was able to extol the virtues of the Northern Line rolling stock project, where GEC-Alsthom is building and maintaining new trains and leasing them back to London Underground Ltd. (LUL) for the next 30 years - at an exorbitant price!
The Labour Party has now modified PFI to PPP (public/private partnership). Addressing the RMT Women's Conference in March, Gwyneth Dunwoody explained the crucial difference: under PPP the assets would remain in the public sphere. So, for example, the new Jubilee Line trains would still be owned by LUL, but they would be maintained and serviced privately by GEC's staff.
It would take too long to explain how inefficient and impractical this project is proving to be. That's their problem. What concerns RMT members is that these GEC maintenance workers will have lower pay and worse conditions and pension arrangements than their LUL counterparts, as TUPE arrangements will not apply to a new depot.
The public may not know that over the past five years much of London Underground has been quietly privatised. Catering, cleaning, advertising, building, security, parts of the infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance, some engineering and clerical functions, for a start. Nothing, we are told, is sacred, even ticket sales. Presumably, this fits in well with PPP, as it does not apparently compromise ownership of assets! However, even Gwyneth's paltry interpretation of Labour's intentions looks good compared to the Panorama revelations, which tell us that Labour is considering giving the private sector controlling interest in public transport.
The debate on "where will the money come from?" has overshadowed the issue of accountability. Take the Jubilee Line extension as an example. The project was given the green light, ahead of more favoured options such as Crossrail and the Hackney-Chelsea link, because the private sector was prepared to cough up. Olympia and York was prepared to back the project to link up with the Canary Wharf/Docklands yuppy property development. Toronto based millionaires had more to say about the development of London's transport network than did Londoners and commuters, who are now picking up the bill after Olympia and York's demise - vital repair work has been indefinitely postponed because of the JLE overspend.
The RMT has always had policy against PFI and its variants; its AGM will undoubtedly discuss these latest developments. However, the unions have been demoralised by the failure to stop the wholesale privatisation of BR. It was convenient to be able to blame the Tories. It's looking increasingly unlikely that they will be able to exercise the pressure on the Government to give us what we need: a Labour Government with the political will to find ways to raise and use public money for the underground and to establish a London-wide authority which would take back control of the Underground network.