Tube Lines' Delays may spread to Northern Line

After a recent media war of words about the finish date for the Jubilee Line upgrade, it appears that TfL now aren't confident about Tube Lines being able to complete Northern Line updates in time for the Olympics. Bloomberg reported yesterday that TfL is "concerned" about Tube Lines meeting the January 2012 deadline for the Northern Line work.


The same Jubilee Line team will be used for the work on the Northern Line. Boris Johnson had written to the Head of Tube Lines demanding assurances of the finish date of the Jubilee Line work. However Tube Lines said in an e-mail on Monday that 'the delay to the Jubilee line does not necessarily impact on the Northern line upgrade.'

This Thursday rail regulator Chris Bolt will issue a draft decision on a related dispute between the London Underground & Tube Lines' about the cost of the contractor's work from 2010 to 2017. London Underground estimates the cost to be 4.2 billion pounds, while Tube Lines says it will be around 5.7 billion pounds.

RMT Leader Bob Crow leapt on the recent disputes as a chance to lay into Tube Lines and hasn't minced his words. He told the BBC:

"Tube Lines should be sacked now, without compensation, before the final death throes of PPP on the underground do further damage to London's transport system.

"This chaos management of an essential service for millions of Londoners cannot be allowed to continue." He believes that the work should be bought in-house (probably giving him even more opportunity to determine when workers should lay down their tools).

The Northern Line is one of the busiest on the Tube & many people are worried about the Tube's ability to cope with the influx of travellers due to the Olympics. So Tube Lines are under a lot of pressure to get work completed on time. At the moment it's early days, but doubtless the battle of words will continue.