 | |
| Company type | Limited company[1] |
|---|---|
| Industry | Railways |
| Founded | 7 February 2000[1] |
| Fate | Sold to public sector on 7 May 2010; equity acquired by Transport for London[2] |
| Headquarters | 15 Westferry Circus, London, United Kingdom |
Key people |
|
| Owner | |
Number of employees | 3,500 (initially) |
| Website | www |
Tube Lines Limited, initially known as Infraco JNP (an amalgamation of infrastructure and company), was an asset-management company responsible for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the infrastructure, including track, trains, signals, civils work and stations, of three London Underground lines.
It was established in 2000 as a consortium of several private companies (Amey plc, Bechtel and Jarvis plc) to bid for public-private partnership (PPP) opportunities on the Underground. During April 2003, Tube Lines began to maintain, upgrade and renew infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines under a 30 year contract.[3] It was one of two such infrastructure companies (the other being Metronet) to enter into a public-private partnership (PPP) with London Underground at that time. Under the terms of the PPP, Tube Lines was committed to the delivery of substantial improvements to the network via the refurbishment, upgrading and renewing of track, trains, tunnels, signals and stations. To encourage high reliability rates, financial deductions were incurred for poor performance at twice the rate of increase in revenue for improved performance.[4][3]
The PPP arrangement was closely scrutinised by the British government; by early 2005, both the House of Commons Transport Select Committee and the Public Accounts Committee were criticising the opaque nature of the PPP as well as questioning the value for money in comparison to a publicly run investment programme.[5][6] That same year, Jarvis plc divested itself from involvement in the consortium. Several of the improvements promised by Tube Lines were delayed considerably or ultimately cancelled. During late 2009, Tube Lines requested that Transport for London (TfL) provide an additional £1.75 billion to cover a funding shortfall to perform upgrades to which TfL declined.
During May 2010, TfL agreed to buy out Bechtel and Amey (Ferrovial), the shareholders of Tube Lines, for £310 million.[2] Having followed a similar takeover of Metronet, this meant that all maintenance on the London Underground was thereafter managed in-house and no longer involved any PPPs, although numerous private suppliers and contractors have continued to be used by TfL.[2] In this manner, Amey continued to provide TfL with management and maintenance services for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines until the end of 2017. Tube Lines has been a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL since May 2010, and was rebranded as "London Underground".[7]
- ^ a b "Tube Lines Limited: Company number 03923425". Companies House. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
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transport select2005was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Waboso, David (December 2010). "Transforming the tube". Modern Railways. London, UK. p. 42.