Transport for London has completed a £98m deal to buy out Tramtrack Croydon Ltd, the company which operates Tramlink services in Croydon under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract.
When they announced plan to acquite the company in March transport officials claimed that the 99 year PFI contact, which was awarded in 1996, before the establishment of the Greater London Authority and TfL, is insufficiently flexible and required TfL to make compensation payments for any changes to the fares.
TfL Commissioner Peter Hendy said the deal was "excellent value for London’s fare and tax payers."
Hendy promised that public ownership would result in better service and said TfL would run additional services to relieve crowding on the Wimbledon to New Addington line and increase the off-peak Elmers End and Beckenham Junction service from two to four trams per hour.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said the deal was "marvellous news for tram fans and a fantastic deal for Londoners" which "puts an end to the unbelievable scenario of millions of pounds of their taxes being used to pay Tramtrack to keep fares down."
