The left wing media has deliberately ignored that the state owned infrastructure company had very little chance of being able to meet its upgrade commitments and if it had it would have been through prioritising them at the expense of other lines.
Oh, the nasty left wing media. What con artists questioning if taxpayer value has been achieved.
Look at this from a facts based point of view, please. Do you know, for a fact, how much of the infrastructure will not be delivered on time? Some of it, most certainly, will be late. But what, exactly and how late? A couple of months delay on a minor thing is very unluckily to have adversely affected revenue in the order of more than a billion pounds. A major project suspension might. Furthermore, there is not much evidence as it stands of any delays to either infrastructure or rolling stock that have affected the performance of the franchise to date, and yet it has been reported that the franchise is not performing as well as expected.
Events tells us some things:
1. The DfT probably has not kept up its end of the bargain.
2. It is in the interest of Stagecoach not to carry the deal to the full term as they are unable to make the premium payments.
3. The balance of these two effects will be what should determine what penalties Stagecoach have had to pay to get out of the contract.
Think about it, if you were the DfT and Stagecoach wanted you to renegotiate, and your end of the bargain had been upheld flawlessly, you would not cede a centimeter of ground. Clearly, they have done because some of the things the DfT agreed to cannot happen. What we are not clear on is what Stagecoach paid and what, exactly they have got in exchange.
