Post by Admin on Mar 9, 2014 15:19:44 GMT
Transport for London (TfL) was created in 2000 as part of the Greater London Authority by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It gained most of its functions from its predecessor London Regional Transport in 2000. However, it did not take over responsibility for the London Underground until 2003, after the controversial Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract for maintenance had been agreed. Under the PPP scheme the core of the Underground - the track, signalling, bridges, tunnels, lifts, escalators, stations and trains were transferred to three private companies. Prior to this, the London Underground was state owned & controlled. From 2001 to 2006 Bob Kiley was the first Commissioner of TfL, appointed by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, with responsibility for the whole London transport system.
From Bob Kiley's TfL profile:
Early in his career, he was with the CIA, where he served as Manager of Intelligence Operations and then as Executive Assistant to the Director, (Richard Helms).
Robert Kiley is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Board Member of the Salzburg International Seminar, the American Repertory Theater, MONY Group Inc, the Princeton Review Inc and Edison Schools, Inc. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Harvard University Center for State and Local Government.
Having been appointed with a £2m, four-year contract, former CIA man Kiley became the world's best paid public servant. He quit his position as commissioner shortly after the London bombings in 2005 after "rows" with mayor Ken Livingstone and his own staff and amid a not inconsiderable controversy about alleged alcohol-related problems for which Kiley admits he sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous and the manner in which he appointed many of his American ex-colleagues.
Upon quitting his post as commissioner Kiley received a £1.2m severance package, the terms of which were initially confidential. It included consultancy payments of £3,200 per day for up to 90 days a year in 2006 and 2007. According to London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, "Bob Kiley was worth every penny we paid him as commissioner of Transport for London." Liberal Democrat transport spokesman for London, Geoff Pope, added: "Most Londoners will be rightly furious that the mayor is handing over £737,000 a year of taxpayers' money to a consultant who admits he isn't doing much. But it doesn't stop there: he also gets a personal assistant and a free house worth £3,000 a week rent. This makes a joke of affordable housing for key workers. These are benefits most of us can only dream about." Mike Gapes, Labour and Cooperative Party MP for Ilford South had raised a great number of issues about the appointment of Mr Kiley in 2002 and the negative effects of Kiley upon London's essential public transport infrastructure, all of which were ignored.
Two private consortia, Tube Lines and Metronet, have 30-year PPP contracts to run the Tube. Tube Lines is owned by Amey and Bechtel, and runs the Northern, Piccadilly and Jubilee Lines. Jarvis sold its share in Tube Lines to Amey (owned by the Spanish Ferrovial Group) in January 2005. Jarvis were responsible for the Potters Bar rail crash in May 2002 which led to 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries, and Jarvis' company directors escaped being charged with corporate manslaughter by the Crown Prosecution Service in October 2005.
From Bob Kiley's TfL profile:
Early in his career, he was with the CIA, where he served as Manager of Intelligence Operations and then as Executive Assistant to the Director, (Richard Helms).
Robert Kiley is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Board Member of the Salzburg International Seminar, the American Repertory Theater, MONY Group Inc, the Princeton Review Inc and Edison Schools, Inc. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Harvard University Center for State and Local Government.
Having been appointed with a £2m, four-year contract, former CIA man Kiley became the world's best paid public servant. He quit his position as commissioner shortly after the London bombings in 2005 after "rows" with mayor Ken Livingstone and his own staff and amid a not inconsiderable controversy about alleged alcohol-related problems for which Kiley admits he sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous and the manner in which he appointed many of his American ex-colleagues.
Upon quitting his post as commissioner Kiley received a £1.2m severance package, the terms of which were initially confidential. It included consultancy payments of £3,200 per day for up to 90 days a year in 2006 and 2007. According to London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, "Bob Kiley was worth every penny we paid him as commissioner of Transport for London." Liberal Democrat transport spokesman for London, Geoff Pope, added: "Most Londoners will be rightly furious that the mayor is handing over £737,000 a year of taxpayers' money to a consultant who admits he isn't doing much. But it doesn't stop there: he also gets a personal assistant and a free house worth £3,000 a week rent. This makes a joke of affordable housing for key workers. These are benefits most of us can only dream about." Mike Gapes, Labour and Cooperative Party MP for Ilford South had raised a great number of issues about the appointment of Mr Kiley in 2002 and the negative effects of Kiley upon London's essential public transport infrastructure, all of which were ignored.
Two private consortia, Tube Lines and Metronet, have 30-year PPP contracts to run the Tube. Tube Lines is owned by Amey and Bechtel, and runs the Northern, Piccadilly and Jubilee Lines. Jarvis sold its share in Tube Lines to Amey (owned by the Spanish Ferrovial Group) in January 2005. Jarvis were responsible for the Potters Bar rail crash in May 2002 which led to 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries, and Jarvis' company directors escaped being charged with corporate manslaughter by the Crown Prosecution Service in October 2005.