Row over derailment

Tube Lines, the London Underground maintenance company, today hit back at suggestions that it was responsible for the derailment at Camden Town.

The consortium was carrying out work on points in the area the night before Sunday's crash in which seven Northern line passengers were injured.

Tube Lines was criticised yesterday by Mayor Ken Livingstone and Bob Kiley, the transport commissioner.

Mr Kiley said Tube Lines, which signed a 30-year contract for the Northern, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines in January, was not providing enough data on work being carried out under the public private partnership. "We still don't have the information we need," he said.

The Mayor said Tube Lines should no longer be referred to by name but that consortium members Jarvis, Amey and Bechtel should be identified. "You could call them the usual suspects," he said.

But today Tube Lines said it was unfair to judge before the cause of the Camden Town derailment was known.

A spokesman said: "It is still not clear whether the incident is due to the ongoing maintenance regime or other cause. We have no indication any work has been carried out other than to the standard expected and agreed with LU.

"Tube Lines reports performance every month in line with the contracts."

Tube users suffered continued disruption today with a large section of the Northern line remaining closed.