Northern Line could shut every evening for a year for engineering works
London Underground passengers face disruption with plans to close section of tube network from 8.30pm on weekdays
* Dan Milmo
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 January 2010 18.04 GMT
Most of the Northern Line could be shut from 8.30pm on weekdays for more than a year to allow for engineering works, causing further disruption for passengers on one of the most congested lines on the London Underground.
The plans have put the last surviving contractor in the public private partnership to upgrade the tube network on track for another showdown with Boris Johnson. Tube Lines and the London mayor's transport authority, Transport for London, are wrangling over plans to introduce faster and more frequent services on the Northern Line. Sources close to the talks say Tube Lines wants to do the work from 11.30pm between Sunday and Thursday for 16 months, starting next month. According to TfL, this would mean closing the line north of Stockwell from 8.30pm onwards to get trains back to depots.
The Victoria Line closed from 10pm on weekdays from February 2008 to the end of that year for similar upgrade works.
Johnson criticised Tube Lines last year for "unacceptable" delays in completing an upgrade of the Jubilee Line, which is expected to finish in October, 10 months late. TfL is also in dispute with Tube Lines over the cost of the next seven and a half years' worth of work, including the Northern Line upgrade. Tube Lines has said the work should cost £5.75bn, with TfL arguing that £4bn is a fairer estimate. The PPP arbiter, Chris Bolt, has sided with TfL, putting the bill at £4.4bn, which leaves Tube Lines facing a £1.35bn funding gap.
Tube Lines said the schedule for the Northern Line upgrade was still being discussed with TfL. "We have worked very closely with London Underground to find a way of getting access to the track while producing minimum disruption to the service. It is an ongoing discussion between us," it said.
TfL took over the largest tube PPP contractor, Metronet, after it collapsed two and a half years ago and has held discussions with Tube Lines about taking over the business.
Tube Lines is co-owned by US firm Bechtel and Amey, a UK-based public service provider, which is owned by Ferrovial, the largest shareholder in airport group BAA.
TfL declined to comment.
UK: Tube line could shut every evening for a year
Moderator: John Ashworth
-
John Ashworth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23606
- Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
- Location: Nairobi, Kenya
- Contact:
-
Kevin Wilson-Smith
Re: UK: Tube line could shut every evening for a year
Not that it will probably make much difference.
Every time I have travelled the Northern Line over the past few years - there has been disruption and buses once one has left central London!
Every time I have travelled the Northern Line over the past few years - there has been disruption and buses once one has left central London!
-
John Ashworth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23606
- Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
- Location: Nairobi, Kenya
- Contact:
Re: UK: Tube line could shut every evening for a year
Boris Johnson calls for Tube Lines fee reduction
• Mayor of London wants government to press Tube Lines for cut
• Johnson says dropping management fee would save £400,000
* Dan Milmo
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 February 2010 18.27 GMT
Boris Johnson has urged the government to intervene in a funding dispute over the London Underground after alleging that the network's struggling contractor, Tube Lines, will pay out £1.1bn in secondment fees to its shareholders.
The London mayor has asked the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, to approach Tube Lines's owners and pressure them to forgo their fees for the next seven-and-a-half years. Tube Lines, a public private partnership contractor, is owned by Bechtel, a US project management firm, and Amey a UK-based consultancy, who charge the company fees to use its employees.
According to Johnson the co-owners are due to receive a profit of about £400m from these fees by 2017, out of a total of £1.1bn since the controversial PPP contract began in 2002. The mayor's transport authority, Transport for London, is facing a £400m funding shortfall in payments to Tube Lines over the next seven years and Johnson cited the management fees as an appropriate solution to a financial crisis at TfL. Alternatively, Johnson said, the government could provide the funds through the taxpayer.
"You have an obligation to intervene immediately to make good the likely funding shortfall faced by London to ensure that the Tube upgrades are delivered in full, either by funding the shortfall from government resources or by persuading Tube Lines's shareholders to give up their extraordinary returns in the light of their abject failings," he wrote.
TfL is claiming that the next seven-and-a-half-years' work on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines – which are maintained by Tube Lines – should cost £4bn. However, an independent arbiter has priced the work at £4.4bn in a draft ruling, leaving TfL with a potential funding gap of £400m. Tube Lines's funding hole is even bigger, because it has argued that the work should cost £5.75bn – leaving the company with a potential shortfall of £1.35bn.
The Department for Transport has refused to give more cash to TfL, which received a funding settlement of £40bn for 2010-2017, including TfL's contribution to the £16bn Crossrail project that will drive a new underground railway through central London. A source close to Tube Lines accused the mayor of "hypocrisy" because TfL also pays out secondment fees to private contractors after taking over the largest underground PPP contractor, Metronet, in 2007. According to Tube Lines, TfL has paid Canadian engineering firm Bombardier £88m in similar fees for upgrading the Victoria line. "It is hypocritical to attack us on this when they pay out such high fees for the Victoria Line."
TfL has argued that the Bombardier fees are a legacy of a contract that it inherited after Metronet's collapse.
• Mayor of London wants government to press Tube Lines for cut
• Johnson says dropping management fee would save £400,000
* Dan Milmo
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 February 2010 18.27 GMT
Boris Johnson has urged the government to intervene in a funding dispute over the London Underground after alleging that the network's struggling contractor, Tube Lines, will pay out £1.1bn in secondment fees to its shareholders.
The London mayor has asked the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, to approach Tube Lines's owners and pressure them to forgo their fees for the next seven-and-a-half years. Tube Lines, a public private partnership contractor, is owned by Bechtel, a US project management firm, and Amey a UK-based consultancy, who charge the company fees to use its employees.
According to Johnson the co-owners are due to receive a profit of about £400m from these fees by 2017, out of a total of £1.1bn since the controversial PPP contract began in 2002. The mayor's transport authority, Transport for London, is facing a £400m funding shortfall in payments to Tube Lines over the next seven years and Johnson cited the management fees as an appropriate solution to a financial crisis at TfL. Alternatively, Johnson said, the government could provide the funds through the taxpayer.
"You have an obligation to intervene immediately to make good the likely funding shortfall faced by London to ensure that the Tube upgrades are delivered in full, either by funding the shortfall from government resources or by persuading Tube Lines's shareholders to give up their extraordinary returns in the light of their abject failings," he wrote.
TfL is claiming that the next seven-and-a-half-years' work on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines – which are maintained by Tube Lines – should cost £4bn. However, an independent arbiter has priced the work at £4.4bn in a draft ruling, leaving TfL with a potential funding gap of £400m. Tube Lines's funding hole is even bigger, because it has argued that the work should cost £5.75bn – leaving the company with a potential shortfall of £1.35bn.
The Department for Transport has refused to give more cash to TfL, which received a funding settlement of £40bn for 2010-2017, including TfL's contribution to the £16bn Crossrail project that will drive a new underground railway through central London. A source close to Tube Lines accused the mayor of "hypocrisy" because TfL also pays out secondment fees to private contractors after taking over the largest underground PPP contractor, Metronet, in 2007. According to Tube Lines, TfL has paid Canadian engineering firm Bombardier £88m in similar fees for upgrading the Victoria line. "It is hypocritical to attack us on this when they pay out such high fees for the Victoria Line."
TfL has argued that the Bombardier fees are a legacy of a contract that it inherited after Metronet's collapse.
