More bad news for London’s Tube passengers emerged last week, with a report from the London Assembly revealing that planned improvements to the Underground system could be shelved or badly delayed due to a looming funding crisis.

The report, produced by the Assembly’s transport committee, said that in order to avoid hellish overcrowding scenarios on the Tube, the government must meet additional costs incurred by Tube Lines, the remaining private sector partner in London Underground’s public private partnership (PPP) maintenance deal.

The other private subcontractor, the “spectacularly inefficient” maintenance company, Metronet, collapsed in 2007, leaving TfL a debt burden of some £3bn.

The report highlights the serious risks to the upgrade programme as a result of the current dispute over costs for the maintenance and upgrade of the Underground between Transport for London (TfL) and maintenance contractor Tube Lines. London Underground had costed the work scheduled for 2010-17 at £4.1bn while Tube Lines valued the work at £7.2bn. The arbiter of the dispute concluded that Tube Lines could legitimately charge £5.1bn-5.5bn for the scheduled work.

This discrepancy in the estimates put additional strain on TfL’s already squeezed budgets, resulting in work ceasing on several projects and TfL being forced to find £2.4bn of efficiency savings by 2017-18.

If additional funding is not made available, essential upgrades to the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines – including congestion relief, tunnel cooling and step-free access plans – will fall by the wayside. The refurbishment of some 75 stations – around half the number due to be completed by 2010 – has already been pushed back until 2017 because of the shortfall in TfL’s budget.

The report urged TfL to revise its 2009-17 business plan to take on board the increasing costs and for TfL and LU to be more open and accountable about the actual progress made – or not made.

The panel’s comments were welcomed by London’s mayor Boris Johnson, and a spokesman for his office said, “As the report says, the tube upgrades must proceed, and the government, which inflicted the [PPP] system upon London against its will, must step up to the plate and ensure funding is delivered.”
Unless that happens, one thing is certain – London’s already beleaguered Tube passengers will be facing even worse conditions on an overcrowded and poorly maintained network.

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