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£60m of cuts on Underground raise safety fears
Dick Murray17.06.09
London Underground is cutting spending on keys lines by £60 million.
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.
Reader views (4)
Bob Crow and the RMT are right to strike, are they? I rather got the impression they were striking for their own financial benefit - you know, demanding a 'fair wage' and all that. No mention of keeping the safety of the passengers in the forefront of the argument that I recall - especially when you consider that two of the however many others sacked employees also mentioned were fired BECAUSE of safety issues.
Sorry. Doesn't ring true. I hear the ding, but no dong.
It's always the emotive issues that are highlighted when 'cuts' are discussed. Safety, vital jobs and the like (f'rinstance, it's always 'nurses' that will be lost, never ancillary jobs, when there are questions about health funding) - and it's the same with this RMT crowd.
- Rogan, Irving
There is no doubt in my mind that safety will be compromised on the underground by these cuts. We are heading for another Hatfield or Potters Bar due to poor maintenance. You get what you pay for, cutting £60m from the maintenance area is madness. The staff must be needed to maintain the underground. I think Bob Crow and the RMT are right to strike, wake up people and read between the lines, you only see and hear what the media and Tfl want you see and hear. At the end of the day, the RMT are only demanding a safe railway for us public to use and travel on.
- Steve, London
Cutting Livingston's unsustainable legacy of excessive costs and massive waste on the Tube does not by any means indicate any lessening of safety on the Underground. Londoners have learnt, to their cost, that Bob Crow is pursuing an entirely political agenda, motivated by his outdated hard left politics, and will never put the interests of the travelling public first.
- Matt, London, UK
I sense another strike by Crow & Co is imminent....
- John, London, UK
