Institutional arrangements - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 163

Table 10.3 Owners and operators of light rail and metro systems in the UK

System Network

length
(miles)

Owner Operator

Glasgow Underground Strathclyde PTA Strathclyde PTA

Tyne and Wear Metro 49 Tyne and Wear PTA Tyne and Wear PTA

Blackpool Tramway 11 Blackpool Council Blackpool Council

Manchester Metrolink 24 [Greater Manchester

PTA]

Serco Metrolink

Sheffield Supertram 18 [South Yorkshire PTA] Stagecoach Supertram

Midland Metro
(Birmingham-
Wolverhampton)

12 [West Midlands PTA] Travel West Midlands

[part of National Express
group]

London Underground [Transport for London] Infrastructure: maintained

by private consortia for
three groups of lines

Docklands Light Railway 17 Serco Docklands

Croydon Tramlink [As London

Underground]

Tramtrack Croydon
(Consortium of
CentreWest Buses and
others)

Nottingham Express
Transit

11 [Nottingham City

Council]

Nottingham Express
Transit (Arrow
Consortium)

its ownership. Instead the Government carefully constructed a 'private' company -
Network Rail - which is formally independent, although in practice now subject to
the overall rail strategy set by the Government (23.5). Network Rail is unusual in that
it is controlled by a large board representing various railway interests and is a 'non-
dividend' company, i.e. its profits are reinvested in the business and not distributed to
shareholders.
Disenchantment with public management is also evident in the way the Government
has pursued greater private sector involvement in the running and financing of
operations which formally remain within public ownership. The Treasury was the
dominant force behind the Government pressing ahead with the public-private
partnership arrangement for renewing the infrastructure of the London Underground,
despite the opposition of all 55 London Labour MPs as well as the London Mayor
(nominally the Government's supporters!). Unusually in this case however the
operation of services remains within the direct control of the public sector (Transport
for London - the executive arm of the Mayor and the Greater London Authority).
Network Rail and the London Underground (technically privately and publicly
owned respectively) epitomise the way in which ownership itself has come to assume
much less significance as an indicator of public influence in the passenger transport
industries. Irrespective of ownership there are degrees of public and private sector
involvement in investment and service provision in both. The question of public
influence or control therefore increasingly centres on the particular arrangements
which are made with respect to funding and regulation instead (Chapters 12, 13
and 15). Unfortunately these are very complex subjects whose practical implications