Jubilee line to race road users

Tube chiefs risk humiliation for the second year running today in a race involving the Jubilee line, a bicycle and a jogger.

London Underground came third behind a taxi and a motorbike courier in last year's inaugural challenge race from Big Ben to Canary Wharf.

In spite of the humbling defeat, London Underground is game enough to put its reputation on the line again with another head-to-head.

A Tube train leaving Westminster at 11am will compete against five other methods of cutting through the capital's congested streets - a black cab, a motorbike, a bicycle, a bus and a jogger, all leaving from Big Ben .

LU believes it would have won the race last year had the roads not been "mysteriously quieter than usual".

Jubilee line users, however, may have less confidence in the notoriously unreliable part of the network. The Jubilee has been plagued by almost daily breakdowns virtually - almost all signalrelated - since the 11-mile Extension from Westminster to Stratford opened two years ago.

The JLE cost £3.5 billion - more than double the original estimate - and was 18 months late in opening. It turned a previously reliable line into one of the worst lines in the network.