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TfL to axe £150m Tube upgrades
Dick Murray, Transport Editor19.11.07
Millions of pounds worth of Tube improvements are to be axed in the aftermath of the collapse of maintenance company Metronet.
Plans for the much-heralded £150 million cooling system for the network will be scrapped. And proposals to upgrade stations throughout London will be set back years as Tube chiefs divert cash to keep the network going.
There will also be cutbacks on plans to improve accessibility for disabled passengers. Fewer upgraded lifts will be installed at stations and the number of new access slopes reduced.
Transport for London, parent company of the Tube, will take over maintenance of the lines early in the new year after Metronet went into administration earlier this year.
But the company will have to prioritise improvements to the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines - leaving other projects struggling for money. London Underground proposed the £150 million programme to keep the trains cool after commuters complained of sweltering heat as temperatures underground rose to 47C.
But TfL fear it will not be able to fund the "Cooler Tube" programme after it studied a number of schemes to keep the carriages cool.
Every summer LU has to hand out tens of thousands of bottles of water to help keep passengers cool - they are warned not to travel if they feel faint or unwell in the heat.
The situation is so serious that the Mayor said last year: "We are in a real race now, otherwise four or five years down the road we could face having to close some Tube lines because they are not safe for passengers in the temperatures they will be experiencing."
He said: "You are getting to the point where if a train breaks down in those conditions you could have serious loss of life."
Tim O'Toole, LU managing director, said: "It is not possible to have a collapse on the scale of Metronet without it having major implications."
And a TfL spokesman added: "That is why the 'cooling the Tube' programme is now under review."
The cutbacks will also mean plans to brighten and refurbish stations - such as tiling, painting, more passenger information and seating - across a major part of the network will not now take place for the foreseeable future.
Plans to install lifts where there are none at present will also be delayed - with existing lifts and escalators being repaired rather than replaced. Many new stairways, entrances and exits will also be put on hold.
Brian Cooke, the travel watchdog, called on the Government to make extra funds available.
He said: "We still believe that it was central Government which caused the mess of the public-private partnership.
"They got us into the mess so they should get us out of it. It should pay for any additional costs which LU has to suffer."
The TravelWatch chairman added: "As passenger numbers and global warming increase it is more important than ever that measures are taken to keep the Tube cool - though we recognise this is not an easy project."
Metronet went bust after running up a huge £2 billion overspend. It claimed most of the debt was because of extra work demanded by LU.
However, Chris Bolt, the PPP arbiter, found Metronet was mostly responsible for the spending overrun.
Reader views (14)
Ha. This takes the biscuit. What will it take? - people dying on the tube for tfl to realise that the system needs to be cooled in the summer.
Just because we had a cool summer last year people seem to have forgotten the hell on earth that our tube system is during a warm (yet alone hot) summer
- Brian, London
How can the system hope to cope with the demands put on it by everyday commuting, and the future Olympics? How can London possibly promote itself as a tourist destination when its underground system is left to decay? Too many mistakes have been made in the past. It is time that the Underground is treated as a valuable asset.
- Mark Wright, Verona, Italy
If you fail to invest in the tube then you fail to invest in business - people are delayed and business suffers.
How about a long term view?
- Peter Wilson, Essex, UK
Sukh,
A few facts you may want to consider. London contributed between 17% (£71 Billion) and 19% (£81 Billion) of UK Government revenues in 2003/4 despite making up only 12.5% of the population and receiving only between 13.4% and 14.3% of government spending. Various estimates suggest a net contribution from London to the rest of the nation of £12.1 billion that year. (Source; Corporation of London). Scotland receives an additional £1,500 per person in public spending per year! Under a government dominated by Scotland benefits from a wide range of benefits e.g. no university charges, better healthcare whilst London’s infrastructure is starved of investment. I have nothing against the Scots they are great people, I just believe London cannot go on subsidising the rest of the country whilst it has such major problems itself. Everyone should get out what they put in, a fair share for all.
- Ian, London
Interestingly, TfL have spent the last two years heating the tube by upgrading advertising panels to be back lit in major stations like Oxford Circus. One by itself doesn’t give off too much heat, but an entire passage way, tube platform or station does. The old style paper only (lit by the station lighting) didn’t eliminate any heat. The cheapest solution would be to work at eliminating heat sources rather than building them into the tube network – every little helps!
- Alex, London
It's not that privatisation doesn't work, look at British Gas or BT who are thriving, it's retaining the public alongside the private. El Gordo's big idea...we can't do it ourselves, but we'll tell you how! Sounds like a few wives I know.
- Mark, London, UK
So they can find endless money for pointless projects like the Olympics and for war after war and yet there is not enough to improve conditions on the Tube, including those beneficial to the disabled, and might even have to starting closing lines?
Personally I stopped using the Tube some time ago now - you never know when you're going to be stuck in a tunnel in sweltering heat. And after visiting Barcelona whose tubes are spacious and well air-conditioned, I realised how shoddily we are treated in this country.
What a shame Ken is not as concerned about people and more about profit these days (or should that be the buzz word 'modernisation'?).
- John Baker, London N13
More promises down the Tubes - so to speak.
- Rogan, Dallas, TX
I agree with Ian on this one, nothing annoys me more than my taxes being used to subsidize the Scots who make it quite clear they hate us English, after all the Tube is essential to powering the London economy which gives the Scots their wonderful benefits.
- Damon, london
No doubt Ken will ''Fix It'' while in India - but don't hold your breath!
- Howard, Potters Bar
Red Ken and the other Nu Labor guys have proven to be a big waste of taxpayers' money. This will stop as soon as the elections are called I think.
- Steveo, London
To Ian - What about the oil revenue from Scotland? I don't think the billions of that has been spent on Scotland.
- Sukh, Ilford
There is a simple answer to this and all the problems of under investment in London infrastructure. The government must stop the outrageous subsidy which is provided to Scotland and other parts of the nation. London should benefit in direct proposition to the contribution it makes to the Exchequer, not a penny more, and certainly not a penny less. Were this to happen countless essential projects could be funded. London has subsidised the rest of the country for too long. It has to stop.
- Ian, London
Our transport system should never have been privatised just ridiculous as has been proved. When will the government wake and see that privatisation does not work in regard to public services.
- Cathryn Walsh, London
