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The good news for Underground passengers is that the collapse of the Tube maintenance consortium, Metronet, has not left them or the taxpayer with a bill for £2 billion. That was the figure Metronet was originally demanding from Transport for London for maintenance and refurbishment work on the Underground lines it was responsible for, over and above the jobs specified in its contract. The bad news is that the bill may still amount to £1 billion. This is the preliminary estimate arrived at by Chris Bolt, arbiter of the Tube's Public-Private-Partnership, on the value of the extra work Metronet carried out in its sevenanda-half years refurbishing and maintaining two-thirds of the Underground network.

So, if that figure is realistic - and Transport for London has more or less accused Mr Bolt of plucking figures out of thin air - how is it to be paid for? It would be unacceptable for it to come from increased fares: the capital's cash fares are among the most expensive in the world. But it is quite possible that the station refurbishment programme that Metronet was engaged in will be drastically reduced. Transport for London has inherited Metronet's job and wants to carry on doing it. But to help pay for the Metronet bill, it may have to be far less ambitious in its improvement work.

Passengers can probably live without cosmetic changes to stations. What would be unacceptable, however, is for crucial work on signalling and track improvements to be cut back. It is signalling failure that is responsible for many of the delays on the Underground which in turn have a direct economic impact on London. Ultimately, of course, it is the Government which will, almost certainly, have to find the money to pay Metronet and to provide Metronet's successor with sufficient funds for infrastructure improvements. After all, the Public-Private-Partnership was the brainchild of Gordon Brown.