Tube Lines is responsible for maintenance and upgrades of infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, with Amey providing maintenance and Bechtel capital improvement projects for the past 7.5 years. Once the sale is completed, Tube Lines will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL with Amey continuing to provide management and maintenance services for a further 7.5 years under an existing Tube Lines contract. Bechtel will continue to work with London Underground for an interim period as capital improvement programmes are transferred to TfL.
"This deal is excellent news for London," mayor of London Mr Boris Johnson says. "'Freed from the perverse pressures of the byzantine PPP structure, 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."
London Underground's two other PPP partnerships ended in July 2007 after the contractor Metronet, which was responsible for maintaining and upgrading two-thirds of the network, went into administration following a substantial cost overrun.
