The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

This seems to have been largely ignored by the media (and was even quite hard to find on the BBC London website), but Boris has bought the last remaining tube maintenance contract in house.

One of the major problems with the previous arrangements is that they allowed the companies to force TFL to close tube lines when they wanted, which has caused a *lot* of disruption to London, and potentially a lot of damage to London's image as a modern, efficient city. Damage that could potentially cause a lot of jobs to be lost in London.

Take, for instance, the Jubilee line upgrades. These have meant that the line has been (at least partially) closed nearly every weekend for nearly two years. According to a programme shown on the BBC, similar upgrades on one of the Paris Metro lines (a line that is a similar length to the Jubilee) took 1 year, and involved no weekend or bank holiday closures. The difference being that the Paris Metro work took place overnight. Something which TFL apparently claim is too expensive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8672312.stm



The major thing Boris has promised is fewer closures.

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

I don't think it would be any better.

When I read that the Victoria line wasn't included in that list I assumed it was still under PPP control. But now you've said that its being maintained in-house I know things won't get any better.

The maintainence schedule for the Victoria line is horriffic. Its closed more often than its open and always seems to be closed when Spurs are at home and open when Spurs are away.

Whoever is in charge of the maintenance schedule is either an idiot or a gooner (or both).

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

As long as we understand they are not the same thing! :D

That said it's not much better at Arsenal either, when a 60,000 seater stadium empties it's a good idea to have more than 1 train every 5 or so minutes but the geniuses at TFL haven't worked that out yet.

Still I hope this will improve the system as well as give TFL more control over the lines they close.

---------- Post added at 11:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 ----------

This may be true but the Paris Metro is awful in a lot of other respects, out-dated metal coffins they call trains, much dirtier stations, beggars on the line.

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

But that's enough about the French.....;)

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

Or maybe after today it might be Zola.
Regarding the tube I use the Victoria line twice a week, which is more than enough, and have found in the last year it seems more reliable.
Admittedly I travel in the day, Victoria to Kings Cross, but its been quite a while since the train has stopped mid tunnel for five or even ten minuets, once it was twenty five minutes, I don't know if I've just been lucky?
Much more of a concern for me is the outrageous lack of air-con on the tube, as we are in May now it will not be long before temperatures once again soar down there, didn't Ken try putting large blocks of ice under the seats as a trial? either way that would be my first choice air-con, summer is a nightmare on the tube.

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

Doesn't one go with the other. :D:D:D

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

Bloody hell a Tory has bought a public service back under public control:shocked:

Place your bets when it's resold:mad:

Re: The London Underground is back in public hands..
 

Could that be the reason for doing it? To have it all in one piece to sell it off to the highest bidder.