Do you consider it acceptable in 2022 that rail workers are unable to maintain engineering assets only 5 minutes apart because the equipment is manufactured by a different company?

The assets Transport for London (TfL) has in place have been procured over time. Its Commercial teams work with the business areas to source the most appropriate assets based on their ability to meet its technical/cost requirements. This means that TfL will at times use different companies to provide these assets.

Depending on the asset, it is either maintained in house under set maintenance regimes or a contractor is used to do the work. For both approaches TfL ensures that the individual maintaining that asset has the requisite skills, knowledge and experience to maintain the asset safely and effectively.

Some assets require the individual maintaining and operating the asset to have several years of training, so TfL has some very skilled engineers and maintenance staff within the business and across its contractor teams.