Kiley braced for Tube court battle

The tube network suffers widespread delays

Rail unions and campaigners have been picketing the Law Courts in London where a hearing is taking place into government plans to bring private money into the running of the Tube.

London mayor Ken Livingstone and transport commissioner Bob Kiley are seeking a judicial review of the proposals for public-private partnership (PPP) on the London Underground.

They argue that PPP would make the running of the Tube unsafe and inefficient.

Meanwhile, figures released on Monday suggest that delays on the Underground caused by technical faults have increased dramatically.

Under PPP, three engineering firms would control the tube's lines while the publicly-run London Transport runs the trains and stations.

The High Court hearings, prompted by Mr Kiley, are unlikely to hear submissions on Monday.

Legal basis

This will allow Mr Justice Sullivan, who is presiding over the review, to get to grips with the evidence - much of which is technical.

A decision could come as early as this Friday.

The legal basis for the challenge is that the plans could contradict part of the legislation creating the post of mayor.

The 1.5m passengers a day who use the Tube have become used to regular breakdowns.

And the number of signals and points failures in the year 2000 to 2001 rose by 35.5%, compared with the 1999-2000, while track failures increased by 35.6%, according to a new study.

District line customers had to put up with a 115% increase in track failures, figures from Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Tom Brake MP showed.

The number of track failures also doubled on the Northern line, while there was a 71% increase in signals/points failure on the Metropolitan line.

Service fears

The government says PPP will bring big improvements and reduce the burden on the taxpayer, guaranteeing £4,000 of investment for every household in London.

But the mayor believes the government is just creating an underground version of Railtrack.

He wants the power to order contractors to carry out specific work on the line at short notice, fearing services will suffer otherwise.

More than seven months of wrangling between the two sides has failed to bring a compromise near.

On Tuesday Mr Kiley was sacked from his role as chairman of London Regional Transport by transport secretary, Stephen Byers.