The boss of a private company brought in to revitalise the Tube has been fired.

John Weight was axed in a boardroom coup after Metronet's "totally unacceptable" performance over engineering failures which have brought misery to millions of commuters. Mr Weight was immediately replaced by Andrew Lezala, chief operating officer from Jarvis - the firm heavily criticised for its maintenance-of the rail network and over the Potters Bar crash, in which seven people died. Today Metronet's owners defended their decision to employ Mr Lezala.

Keith Clarke, chief executive of Atkins, one of the five companies which own Metronet, said Mr Lezala would improve the company's record. Mr Clarke said: "We know that he has done an extremely good job at Jarvis in rebuilding the trust with Network Rail.

"The fact he has those skills to go in and rebuild the credibility in quite a difficult situation gives testament to the guy's strengths." Mr Clarke admitted the performance of Metronet was abysmal.

The company is in charge of renewing two thirds of the system, including the District, Circle, Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan and East London lines and the deep-level Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo and City routes.

On some mornings hundreds of thousands of commuters have suffered long delays when large sections of lines, sometimes several lines, have failed to re-open on time.

London Underground managing director Tim O'Toole has read the riot act to Metronet and the other contractor, Tube Lines. Bosses of the five Metronet shareholder companies were forced to take drastic action following demands that the consortium be stripped of its lucrative 30-year contract.

Mr Clarke described the frequency with which night engineering over-runs have ruined morning rush-hour services as "totally unacceptable" and added: "We understand the extreme distress it causes to passengers."

Mr Clarke added: "The impact for us, the shareholders, is really quite significant. It is not just the equity exposure, there is reputation exposure which to our own share prices could be more significant than that."

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