TFL wins battle for former Metronet London Underground lines

Transport for London has defeated government plans for a new Public Private Partnership to carry out the London Underground work of the failed Metronet group.

Department of Transport ministers had wanted the private sector to take control of running the bulk of the underground line upgrade in London, but TfL has successfully argued it should keep complete control over maintenance.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis, in a written parliamentary statement, said: "The mayor and I have accepted the committee’s recommendations that the contracts inherited from Metronet should remain under the direct management of LUL as the best value option under the present circumstances."

He told Parliament in a written statement that he and London Mayor Boris Johnson had accepted the recommendations of a committee set up to look at what to do with the ex-Metronet contract.

Following the administration of Metronet in July 2007 the contracts for maintaining and upgrading eight of London's 11 tube lines were taken over last year, initially as an interim measure, by Transport for London and its subsidiary London Underground Limited.

Lord Adonis said in his statement: "A decision on the most appropriate contracting arrangement for the Bakerloo line upgrade (which has not yet started) will be taken nearer the time, reflecting lessons learnt from the earlier upgrades."

He said that there would "continue to be substantial private sector involvement through the contracts managed by LUL".

And he added: "Underpinning these new arrangements and responding to the increased size of TfL's investment programme are new scrutiny measures at Transport for London.

"The Mayor will establish an independent advisory panel with remit extending across the entirety of the TfL investment programme."

It was argued that a private sector presence could prevent a repeat of the managerial problems that dogged the Jubilee Extension - a project that resulted in a £60m fraud trial.