£60m of cuts on Underground raise safety fears

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More than £26 million is being slashed from tracks and signals, £19 million from trains and £18.5 million from stations on lines previously maintained by private sector firm Metronet, which went bust last year with debts of £2 billion.

Lines affected include the Circle, District, Metropolitan, Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and the Waterloo & City.

Tube unions today warned that safety could be compromised. Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said: "These are real cuts that will hit track, signals, trains and stations maintenance as well as putting yet more Tube staff jobs on the line. The consequences of these kind of cuts on the Underground could be potentially disastrous."

LU denied the safety risk claims but confirmed the figures. It says costs are being reduced but not maintenance.

The new cuts follow an National Audit Office report which identified a £410 million loss to the taxpayer because of the collapse of Metronet.

Richard Parry, LU managing director, said: "Metronet's costs had spiralled out of control and to claim that the £2.5 billion we have managed to save fare and taxpayers can be equated to a reduction in safety standards is wholly untrue."

An LU spokesman said: "We are reducing the costs of the Metronet contracts by re-negotiation. But that does not mean we are cutting work or maintenance."

After Metronet collapsed, LU took over its maintenance and renewal contracts and 7,000 staff. Mayor Boris Johnson has ordered 1,000 jobs to go at the Tube and hundreds more at Transport for London in a bid to cut spending by £2.5 billion. But sources at both LU and TfL warning the potential job losses could exceed 3,000.