New Tube machines 'cutting queues'

One of the men responsible for transforming the Tube has offered passengers some good news tempered with a bluntly realistic caveat.

The good news, revealed by Transport Minister Lord Falconer during Question Time in the Lords, is that queues at ticket machines are being significantly reduced thanks to new hi-tech machinery.

But Lord Falconer conceded that longer-term improvements, promised under part-privatisation of the Tube, would "take years to make a difference".

The former minister in charge of the Millennium Dome said 25 machines are installed and another 25 should be in place by the end of the year.

They allow customers to buy weekly travel cards or the most common single and return journeys by debit or credit cards and cut the average transaction time to less than a minute.

Last Monday industry figures revealed that 300,000 have deserted the Underground each week, fed up with the constant battle against delays and disrepair. The next day was dubbed "black Tuesday" after a catalogue of failures combined to shut down six Tube lines.