The takeover by RATP was confirmed by the London Stock Exchange yesterday.
"Manchester tram operations
Stagecoach Group plc ("Stagecoach") yesterday completed the sale of its subsidiary, Stagecoach Metrolink Limited ("SML"), to Ratp Dev UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ratp Développement.
SML operates and maintains the Manchester Metrolink tram network under a ten-year contract with Transport for Greater Manchester (formerly, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive) through to July 2017. The gross assets of SML as at 30 April 2011 were £16.2m.
The sale relates only to SML. The sale does not include the Group's Sheffield tram operations, and the Group is not engaged in any discussions regarding a sale of the Sheffield tram operations."
Nigel Walker sent me these pictures of construction work.
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| Shot of Metrolink extension to Oldham as it passes Newton Heath Waste Transfer Station |
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| Manchester Route 24 as it turns from Oldham Road on to Thorp Road before going over the Metrolink extension to Oldham. |
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| Same location |
I read two types of comment on a national newspaper comment site recently over this.
ReplyDelete1:Stagecoach boss Brian Souter is widely claimed to be homophobic, based on his public actions (see Google) and so disconnecting Metrolink from Stagecoach has to be a good thing.
2:RATP is French state-owned, so it's great to see a bit of transport privatisation in Britain again, but unfortunately for UK taxpayers it's the wrong government.
Don Pearson