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£1bn shortfall brings Tube upgrade to halt
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard19 Mar 2009
IMPROVEMENTS to Tube stations and the Underground network have been halted because of a £1billion funding shortfall, a report reveals today.
Plans to ease congestion, cool the tunnels in warm weather and install lifts and escalators may have to be shelved to allow Transport for London to focus on essential maintenance.
The cash crisis also means the refurbishment of up to 75 stations could be delayed by seven years.
The report by the London Assembly Transport Committee warns of a "funding crisis" due to increasing costs and the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet.
It was originally estimated that work by Tube Lines on the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Northern lines would cost £4.1billion.
However rising costs have meant this is now likely to be at least £1billion more, putting at risk plans for a signalling upgrade on the overcrowded Piccadilly line intended to provide 25 per cent more capacity.
In the report, outgoing London Underground boss Tim O'Toole describes completing the work as a "high-wire act".
The document says: "The costs of work have risen dramatically and there is a looming funding crisis which could jeopardise the long-promised improvements.
"There is a consensus that it would be difficult and damaging to reduce the core programme of maintenance and work to increase the network's capacity. It is the peripheral projects that are initially at risk - tunnel cooling, congestion relief and schemes to provide step-free access."
In addition the work being carried out by Metronet on two thirds of the network has stalled after it went into administration and was transferred to TfL.
It means half of the 150 stations due for an upgrade by next year will not be completed until 2017. These include stations on the Bakerloo, Circle and District lines.
The report states: "Metronet was spectacularly inefficient. Metronet's legacy is apparent in a station refurbishment programme now years behind schedule."
TfL has already been told to find £2.4billion worth of efficiency savings. Boris Johnson has called on the Government for additional funding but it has refused to give any more than the previously agreed £39 billion 10-year settlement.
Chair of the Transport Committee, Val Shawcross AM, said: "Our report provides a snapshot of a complex situation that will shape London Underground for many years to come. Any delayed or cancelled projects will have a real impact on people.
"I urge Transport for London to take our recommendations about reviewing its plan and publishing progress reports seriously - this information should be in the public domain. Maintaining and upgrading the Tube is absolutely vital and Londoners have a right to know how it is progressing."
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "We have already agreed a generous long-term settlement with TfL, providing more than £40billion for transport over the next 10 years.
"This took into account the possibility that the costs for delivering Tube improvements could be higher than originally envisaged, as well as providing funding for Crossrail. It is now for TfL to manage this to deliver the high-quality transport its users expect."
London Underground Managing Director Tim O'Toole said: “We welcome the Assembly's report. In particular, we welcome the Assembly's recognition that, The programme of reliability and capacity enhancements are fundamental to meeting London's long-term transport requirements. They must go ahead as scheduled.'
“We also note the Assembly's call on Government, to honour its commitment to fund the renewal of the London Underground by meeting legitimate cost increases on Tube Lines programme.'”
Reader views (14)
Melvyn,
You summed up the situation perfectly.
Boris is wasting millions on his flight of fancy.
Arriva have increased their charges by 24% due to the replacement of bendy buses and that does not cover the £100 million replacement cost.
He can't even justify the replacement of bendy buses on safety grounds as TfL issued a report saying that they were safer than the double deckers that he wants to replace them with.
- Andrew, London W1, 26/03/2009 21:49
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The full report is at:
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/transport/ppp-delays.pdf
The report suggests two ways to reduce the amount TFL has to pay Tubelines without cutting the scope of the work.
One is for TFL to guarantee Tubelines' borrowing.
The other is for TFL to pay extra to Tubelines in the event of high inflation in the construction sector, instead of making an upfront payment reflecting the risk of this occurring. (See p13)
- Kev, Bromley, 20/03/2009 22:21
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I fail to see why work should come to a halt as there is plenty of funding in place to pay for the present work being undertaken.
As for the Piccadilly line upgrade some of this is still many years away and will therefore fall to another government to fix.
What this is about is Boris playing politics with Londons commuters and no doubt trying to put the blaim of future cutbacks on Gordon Brown, well stick to your guns Gordon you have put in place enough funds till after the next election when if Cameron is in power (god help us) then he can cut the funding!
Cameron will also then need to explain as to why he is cutting funding to the tube while affording to abolish inheritence tax for his rich list.
Boris should stop wasting money like the way he is removing recently installed ticket machines from bus stops and if he cant afford the tube upgrade then ha cant afford to scrap the existing c-charge arrangements, he might be better splitting the zone and charging more to use both zones!
He should scrap the "Vanity Borris Master" and retain Artics on the 3 routes he has announced he will scrap them at a cost of millions of pounds extra in opertaing costs!! Boy how Boris loves to waste money...
While Tim O'Toole may have family concerns the suddeness of his departure from a job he loved is possiblily linked to Boris being more interested in playing politics with Londons Transport than getting on with the job....But what else do you expect from a part time mayor.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 20/03/2009 12:26
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Hang on...er..we are in a recession. costs of goods and labour are going DOWN not up - steel, concrete, tiles. Everything has become cheaper. How can costs possibly be going up? Sack the lot of them and employ people who will work for realistic rates!
- Richard, Buckhurst hill, 19/03/2009 15:47
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I thought that the risk of cost increases had been transferred on taxpayers' behalf by TfL to the Bechtel-led Tubelines? This article implies that the risk has come right back to us the taxpayer?
TfL needs the same level of regulation as our banks do.
TfL is c 40% cost inefficient in managing taxpayers' money in-house and appears to be incompetent to manage the Tube PPP contractors who, when they fail, get awarded even more major contracts such as East London Line and, now rumour has it, CrossRail!
- Mike, london, 19/03/2009 14:39
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I totally agree with all the comments.
I would rather have reliable service then pretty stations.
They should also look at the overpaid executives at their £100k+ salaries and bonuses!. As the Standard revealed, it has 123 top managers earning more than £100,000 a year each - a number which has grown more than six-fold since 2000. Is this value for money????
- Caya, London, 19/03/2009 13:52
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You could save £1M each year by reducing the salary package of the Crossrail Chief Executive. Why has no one asked this question
- Pete, London, 19/03/2009 13:39
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The standard of service on the Underground has been getting worse for many years. I wrote to Dianne Abbott, my local MP, but she was not interested. It would be nice to see a London MP challenge Gordon Brown about this subject but it never happens. I am not sure what MPs do all day but it is not helping improve our transport service.
- Sarah Morris, London E8, 19/03/2009 13:18
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To me they appear to be spending too much on station refurbishments, and (until recently?) not nearly enough on the track and the signals. I'd far rather wait a few minutes in a tatty old station and get to work on time, than wait a quarter of an hour in a bright and shiny but progressively more overcrowded station, only to be told that the service has been suspended because of a signal failure. So please, make running a reliable train service the priority. Cosmetic issues can wait.
PFI (Metronet) was very keen on refurbishments, because it was so easy to give the illusion of doing something while actually cutting corners and doing a bodged job, thereby stuffing loads of our cash into the bosses' pockets. They tried the same with track and signalling, but the public noticed the derailed trains and service suspensions, so they just cut back on maintenance and turned it into someone else's problem ten or twenty years later (i.e., now).
- Nigel, London, 19/03/2009 12:46
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One benefit may be a reduction in the endless announcements.
- Alan In Bow, London, 19/03/2009 12:37
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Londoners contribute one-sixth of UK GDP, and probably the same in tax revenue. The government spends it on subsidising Scotland and other EU countries. With the Olympics looming, Boris should be asking for more of our own money back.
- Jools, London, 19/03/2009 12:16
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The words "We told you this would happen" seem somewhat hollow. Successive Govts. have failed spectacularly to fund the tube, rail and road networks. Now we are left with an unfinished system at vastly inflated prices due to PFI.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 19/03/2009 12:05
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Improvement work halted!? I visit to a station such at Oxford Circus suggest this happened sometime ago. In London we pay some of the highest fares in Europe for underground public transport system that seems to be failing at all levels. It it now looks very likely we will be asked to pay more in the coming years. Heads should roll but, of course, they will not. It will be business as usual with the added bonus of 60% of the Tube lines closed or disrupted every weekend.
- John David, London, 19/03/2009 11:57
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The government wants more people in employment. The government wants to print more money. Why not increase funding on improvements so that we can all benefit?
- Steve, London, 19/03/2009 11:27
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