Tube hell for 10 years

Commuters were warned today that there is little prospect of any improvement on the Tube in the next decade.

Two major reports highlighted the huge scale of the difficulties passengers face for years to come.

First, the National Audit Office said the service had been no better since the Tube was part-privatised. It also criticised the way the deal was organised.

It revealed how two private groups carrying out repairs were paid more than £1billion by taxpayers last year. Despite being responsible for 226 delays when their work overran, they were fined only ?15.6 million - a tiny fraction of their vast profits.

Consultants and lawyers were paid an astonishing £109 million to set up the deal, including £29.2 million to law firm Freshfields and £21.4 million to advisers PricewaterhouseCoopers. In a second report, London Underground warned the network would be a "virtual building site" for the next 10 years. Stations are likely to close earlier and open later to allow more time for construction work.

The NAO, the Government's official spending watchdog, said there was no guarantee that the public-private partnership would work. Assistant auditor-general Jeremy Colman said: "The message to passengers is - - don't get too excited."

It said any improvements in the next seven-and-a-half years would be marginal. Under the PPP large sections of the Tube were hived off to two private sector consortia, Metronet and Tube Lines.

They look after the maintenance and upkeep of the network while London Underground retains control of the operation, but not the ownership, of trains and signals. Mr Colman said: "Anyone wanting to upgrade a mass transit system should wait before copying this. It may not turn out the way it was intended."

Bob Crow, leader of the largest Tube union, the RMT, said the reports showed part-privatisation of the network had proved "an expensive scheme for putting guaranteed, risk-free profits into the bank accounts of private shareholders and the expense of taxpayers, commuters and Tube workers."

The NAO report coincides with another from LU detailing the first year of the PPP. They reveal:

The NAO states: "It is too early to judge how successful the PPP will be." It said

the PPP had the potential to deliver improvements, but if it was to work, LU needed to be given accurate and regular information from Metronet and Tube Lines. That was not always the case.

There were financial incentives to deliver better performance but the effectiveness of these incentives was "unproven".

The NAO also highlighted the "weakness" in the planning and response to the January 2003 snowstorm that paralysed Tube travel in north London.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts committee-said the PPP was good for the private sector but the picture was "cloudier" for the public sector.

"We cannot be sure how much these deals will eventually cost but taxpayers are likely to be paying £1 billion a year for 30 years," he said.

"It is still early days, but I am glad to see some signs are encouraging. However, these reports are a long way from the ringing endorsement Londoners might have hoped for."

Tim O'Toole, LU managing director, said: "For LU to provide a better Tube service, we need the provision of key assets such as trains, track and signals to improve."