10 January 2003
The consortium plans to spend £1.6m a day, or £4.4bn in total, over the first seven years of the 30-year deal to improve large parts of the network.
Tube Lines finally assumed responsibility for the improvement and maintenance of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines following an announcement on January 2. Opposition from London Mayor Ken Livingstone had delayed the contract with London Underground.
Tube Lines chief executive Terry Morgan unveiled the consortium's initial spending plans and service commitments on January 8.
He promised to reduce delays on the Piccadilly and Northern lines by 17% and 6% respectively in the next year. New signalling systems will also be installed on both lines by 2011, while the Jubilee line will receive an extra 59 carriages to ease over-crowding.
'Within the first 12 months we will cut delays by nearly 10% across the three lines,' he said.
Total investment over the full course of the contract is expected to be around £16bn, but the consortium has already been plagued by difficulties.
Partner company Amey has run into financial difficulties and announced lower-than-expected profits at the end of 2002.
That was followed by a January 2 announcement that chief executive Brian Staples is to leave at the end of February. A second profits warning, issued on 30 December 2002, was blamed on problems selling Amey's stake in other government contracts for public services.
PFjan2003
