1.11 In November 1997, the working group decided to give further consideration to three of the options. These were:
■ the partial flotation of London Underground;
■ some form of horizontally split business; and
■ notwithstanding Price Waterhouse's comments, a public sector owned London Underground that would be given the right to raise funds in the capital markets, then still the Department's preferred option.
1.12 In December 1997, the Treasury commissioned a team of four businessmen to review the merits of the three options. In January 1998, this team reported that it favoured splitting London Underground horizontally, with the private sector running a single Infraco and the public sector retaining responsibilities as the operating company. London Underground's good operating record helped to convince this team that this part of the business should remain in the public sector. The team had concerns about managing the considerable investment that a single Infraco would face and held the view that only Railtrack could take this on - given its strong position in the market at the time. This resulted in a recommendation that management and responsibility for maintaining, upgrading and renewing the Tube's infrastructure, areas of public sector weakness, would be passed to the private sector in one, two or three concessions.