Cash shortage threatens £1bn Tube line upgrade

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Tube bosses, the Government and Tube Lines are involved in a row over a funding gap of £1.4billion.

Tube Lines, the private sector consortium which is also responsible for maintenance and improvement of the Northern and Jubilee lines, confirmed the Piccadilly Line upgrade, which would include 91 new trains, is "at risk".

Terry Morgan, Tube Lines' chief executive, said if the funding gap is not filled "the greatest risk is the upgrade of the Piccadilly line".

He also raised doubts over new signalling which was ordered at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds before the money was there to pay for it and contracts to supply 91 new trains - the UK's largest order - by 2014 to increase capacity by 20 per cent.

The Piccadilly line is London Underground's third busiest network, used by more than 650,000 passengers a day.

It runs through central London from Cockfosters in the north-east to Heathrow in the west and serves all the Heathrow terminals including T5.

Mr Morgan said there was not enough "cosmetic work" - such as repainting of stations - available to cut back and save cash.

The crisis has been exacerbated by the collapse of Metronet last year with debts of £2billion.

Mayor Boris Johnson has made an urgent appeal to ministers for an extra £3billion to solve the problems across the network, used by 3.3million passengers a day, but has been met with a point-blank refusal.

Tube Lines is already "locked-in" to provide £600million of new signalling for the Jubilee Line by next year and on the Northern Line by 2011.

A senior Tube Lines source said: "For a funding gap of [£1.4billion] it will have to be a major project which suffers. We are committed to the Jubilee and Northern lines which means the Piccadilly upgrade is at risk."

The funding gap was highlighted by Chris Bolt, arbiter of the Tube's public private partnership under which large sections of the Tube were hived off to the private sector on 30-year leases.

He calculated that work by Tube Lines between 2010 to 2017 could legitimately cost up to £5.5billion - but that is £1.4billion more than Tube chiefs can afford.

The Mayor argues that as the Government "imposed" the PPP on London it has a "moral" obligation to pay the extra costs resulting from its actions.