LB unions slam bad tender record
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• A top level meeting between unions and management at LRT is due to take place on Wednesday, March 25 to discuss the bus route tendering programme in London.
The meeting has been called because of union concern at the small number of bus routes successfully tendered for by London Buses.
Cliff Twort, TGWU national passenger group secretary, says, "Tendering has become nothing more than a programme of asset stripping."
"If we carry on like this we could end up with deregulation or privatisation through the back door, with LRT acting as an umbrella organisation licensing private operators on London routes."
Twort maintains that London Buses is failing to win tenders for bus routes, despite making very competitive tenders, and he wants LRT chairman to explain the LRT tendering process.
The tendering process has been expanded in recent months to apply to districts as well as individual routes, and Twort is worried that the Kingston district could be lost to a private bid der when the outcome of the tendering is announced in May.
Twort claims the tendering process is damaging staff morale and undermining the role of London Buses garages. "Every bus route won by the private sector represents extra space in London Buses garages," he says. Since.1985, London Buses has shut 12 garages, and a further four are scheduled for closure in November. Four more garages are being considered for closure.