Results of an international benchmarking study into costs of metro improvements has been issued in a report* by the Arbiter of the Pubic-Private Partnerships (“PPP Arbiter”) being undertaken to refurbish and upgrade the London tube network.
The PPP Arbiter, Chris Bolt, commissioned the study to help judge the costs and performance of tube upgrade concessionaires Metronet and Tube Lines, and both firms participated. He also wanted to identify lessons that could be imported.
Metro systems in eight cities agreed to help the study – Hong Kong, New York, Munich, Barcelona, Toronto, Stockholm, Boston and also parts of the UK’s Network Rail.
In terms of civil structures, only global costs were examined due to variations in classifying operating and capital costs. The data could not be “normalised” for statistical meaning due to their variability. Chronic underspending in infrastructure meant low civil maintenance cost did not indicate good practice.
Also, given the complexity of civil structures it was not possible to establish an effective benchmark range. It was noted, though, that Tube Lines’ civil maintenance costs were relatively low compared to the others, and Metronet.
He noted that while the findings would be used as part of negotiations with Tube Lines under its Periodic Review, interpretation of benchmarking findings depended on various factors: relevance of comparators, robustness of the methodology used, the volume and quality of underlying data.
The benchmarking analysis was based on only one year of cost and performance data, and not all asset areas had information to readily provide. It was further noted that companies working on upgrades in London face a contractual performance regime.
He said an extension to the study is being commissioned to address some issues identified in the benchmarking analysis, such as obtaining extra years of data for study and ensuring the quality is at least as good, ideally improved upon.
The study was undertaken by BSL Management Consultants. Work stated in late 2007 and finished after just over a year.
* “International Benchmarking of the Costs and Performance of Maintaining and Renewing Metro Systems”.
