Keep the Tube running at weekends, bidders for £600m refit are told

Tube bosses are to force major signalling contractors upgrading the network to do the work without closing lines at weekends and evenings.

The crackdown will benefit hundreds of thousands of passengers and prevent a repeat of the Jubilee and Northern line fiascos which have resulted in months of weekend closures.

London's business leaders —particularly restaurateurs — have complained bitterly about loss of trade and Mayor Boris Johnson has repeatedly condemned Tube Lines, the private sector consortium responsible for delays in the Jubilee's resignalling programme.

London Underground is looking to award its biggest-ever signalling contract, worth up to £600 million, to replace the ageing systems of all the network's lines including the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City.

Work will start next year and continue until 2018 and LU is understood to be studying four bidders — a consortium of Alstom and Siemens, and Bombardier, Thales and Inventis. It expects to make the final choice this year.

At least one — Bombardier — has said it will offer a guarantee that it will do the work without additional closures.

It resignalled Madrid's metro system and allowed trains to keep running by installing the new system to run alongside the old during night-time slots.

LU has looked at the Madrid project, and also the Paris and Hong Kong metros, to "learn lessons".

Director of engineering David Waboso admits to being "really struck" by the Madrid programme.
While not naming any bidders he confirmed that offers of "minimal" line closures would be "taken into account".

The London Assembly's transport committee has called for changes to the way upgrade works are procured and carried out to minimise disruption. A report highlighted the Madrid metro in contrast with the "chaotic" work on the Jubilee line.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in