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Labour blamed for trains woes
Robert Lea07.08.08
Taxpayers are being ripped off by a lack of competition among train leasing companies - but it is probably the Government's fault.
That is the provisional conclusion of the Competition Commission's two-year investigation into the three privatised rolling stock companies (roscos), which the Government has accused of overcharging the taxpayersubsidised train operators to the tune of £100 million a year.
The roscos are owned by the banks HSBC and Abbey. The third, Angel, is in the hands of Australian infrastructure fund Babcock & Brown, which has just bought it for £3.6 billion from Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Commission today found the three compete in winning new orders for trains, but not for lucrative long-term maintenance contracts for operators' existing fleets.
But it said the Government's restrictive and inflexible franchising structure is to blame, discouraging train operators from switching maintenance contractors.
