£225,000 fine for Tube

London Underground Ltd was today fined £225,000 for putting workers' lives at risk and slammed by a judge who said managers had "kept trains running at all costs" regardless of the dangers.

The company had pleaded guilty to four health and safety charges relating to repair work on the Central line over a 20-month period. Blackfriars Crown Court heard that track workers were forced to endure dangerous conditions which could have caused death by electrocution.

Judge John Samuels QC said: "Safety was sacrificed to the dominant demands of managers to keep the trains running at all costs and so to sustain the profitability of the Tube system. It is deeply regrettable that the basic safety requirements of a public institution so vital to the maintenance of transport in the capital city has posed such a Herculean task."

Judge Samuels, who earlier accused Tube managers of "institutional blindness" to safety, expressed concern that warnings to workers are still full of jargon and not in plain English. He was also anxious, he said, to ensure that whistle-blowers would not have "black marks placed against their names".

The case arose out of the behaviour of maintenance foreman Dave Elkington who earned the nickname " Dangerous Dave". Between April 1998 and January 2000 several employees carrying out a £2 million upgrade of the Central line suffered electric shocks and one was put in hospital after being made to work in the dark and the rain while the track current remained on.

Elkington, 41, of Lymington, Hampshire, was forced to pay £5,000 in fines and compensation to the staff he endangered after being convicted of four breaches of HSE regulations.

London Underground admitted six breaches. Sentence was adjourned for six months because of the question marks hanging over the company's future regarding the Public Private Partnership.

Judge Samuels also ordered the company to pay £15,687 costs. He said he was aware that railway operating companies have recently paid fines " running into millions" for allowing the late running of trains and he had considered imposing a similar massive financial penalty. But he feared he would leave his sentence open to be overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Nigel Baker QC, defending, said: "This is one of those cases in which some good has come out of evil: there is now a greater awareness of the need for safety. London Underground is anxious for the public to know that it takes safety seriously."