Alstom tube contract under threat
Transport for London, the body responsible for public transport in the capital, will seek legal advice this week in a bid to break the French company Alstom’s 20-year, £429m contract to build and maintain trains on the Northern Line.
The Northern Line was suspended last Thursday after unions raised safety concerns about the emergency braking systems on trains. The line is running again, but on a reduced service.
A spokesman for transport commissioner Bob Kiley said: “Our first priority is to get the Northern Line running. But after that we are going to seek legal advice about how to break this contract ahead of its review date in 2007.”
Kiley is a long-time opponent of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme through which the underground is being upgraded.
He said: “The PPP with Alstom should be terminated. We can’t run any risks at all of this happening again, enough is enough.
“London Under-ground needs to get direct control of the network.”
Kiley continued: “If a contract was terminated there undoubtedly would be a need to pay compensation, but when it’s a safety related cause there are pretty strong grounds for termination.”
Alstom says that the faulty braking device was designed by London Underground, not by the French business, and claimed it was being used as a scapegoat. A company spokesman said: “We would fight any legal attempt to take this contract away from us.”
Insiders at Transport for London believe that they may not be liable for costly compensation claims because the dispute with Alstom is centred around safety.
Kiley and Mayor Ken Livingstone will further have to battle the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown who believe that PPP is a more efficient way of keeping the public service improvement promises made in Labour’s manifesto.
