Dean Finch, Chief Executive of Tube Lines, has admitted that the company will miss the end-of-2009 deadline for the completion of resignalling of the Jubilee Line with Thales moving block signalling. ŒWe don’t think we will quite get there in December¹ Mr Finch was quoted as saying in The Guardian newspaper on 24 September. The October issue of Modern Railways, due out on the bookstalls on 25 September, editorialises on this issue, characterising the Jubilee Line resignalling as a key test of the Public Private Partnership system.
The Guardian says that the delay will cost Tube Lines about £10million a month in compensation payments.
The delay comes on top of a dispute between Transport for London and Tube Lines about what the next phase of modernisation of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Lines should cost. On 23 September TfL asked the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Arbiter, Chris Bolt, to set a fair price for the works. ŒTube Lines¹ costs remain unacceptably high in some areas¹ said TfL.
Following earlier discussions, TfL has rescoped the work to be done in the second phase of the PPP, and estimates the cost of it at £4.2billion now.
Tube Lines is said to value the work at £400million in excess of this.