Mayor pledges less disruption after TfL takes over Tube lines

Boris Johnson today pledged to slash the number of disruptive evening and weekend closures on the Tube after securing a deal to bring some of the busiest Underground lines back under state control.

The Mayor said the millions of commuters would be the "big winners" of the £310 million deal to take over control of the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines from Tube Lines.

Tube Lines will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL when the sale is anticipated to be completed on 30 June.

"The great advantage for all of us is that we no longer have to accede numbly dumbly to the requirements of Tube Lines. We can now do the upgrade at a time that suits us," he said.

"I am confident that London Underground and private contractors are more than capable of delivering the improvements to London's transport network we need, on time and on budget."

Private maintenance firm Tube Lines had come under fire for plans to close the Northern line at evenings and weekends for 18 months and an eight-month delay on the Jubilee upgrade.

"The big winners are the London travelling public and the big losers are the lawyers," said the Mayor. "I'm delighted it's finished, I'm delighted it's over. I think it was a misconceived project. The contracts were very badly drawn up. It did waste colossal sums of money."

The Mayor described the PPP contracts as "intolerable" and criticised original architect Gordon Brown. "The facts speak for themselves, there he is clinging onto office, with his signature project ruthlessly scuppered beneath him," he said.

TfL said the first priority would be to complete the upgrade of the Jubilee line. There would be steps taken to reduce the impact of line closures beginning with a much less disruptive programme on the Northern Line.

A spokesman for TfL said it is "confident of generating substantial savings" on upgrade work for the three lines.

London First chief Baroness Jo Valentine said: "We think this is the best outcome we could have hoped for. The onus is now entirely on the Mayor and TfL to deliver the Tube upgrades promptly and efficiently."

However, more than 1.5 million Tube commuters using the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines face strike action in a row over jobs.

The RMT is to ballot staff at Tube Lines recommending they back industrial action. Union leaders fear the takeover could lead to hundreds of jobs being lost among the 3,000 staff.Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said: "We will ballot our members at Tube Lines unless we receive a guarantee from TfL that they will not cut jobs."

The RMT has demanded a meeting with Mayor Boris Johnson to discuss the takeover and the future of staff. The union has yet to decide when the ballot will start.