Northern Line should be back to "normal"

What's normal on the Misery Line anyway?





London Undeground say that Tuesday should see a full service on the Northern Line a day earlier than originally anticipated.

"LU initially said Monday's trains would only run on central parts of line. Service across the entire line would not be restored "before Wednesday", LU chief operating officer Mike Brown said on Sunday. But engineers have worked around the clock to replace the faulty brake parts on all 106 trains. Health and safety representatives of trade unions agreed that the trains were safe..

"We have worked extremely hard to resolve the problems with Northern line trains as quickly as possible," . Mr Brown said. "We needed to ensure that trains were 100% safe to operate before we recommenced services."

Great news, but now Bob Kiley, the commissioner of Transport for London "has called for Alstom to lose its private finance initiative (PFI) contract to maintain trains on the Underground's Northern Line following problems with the trains' emergency brakes."........

"The call increases the likelihood of fresh conflict between TfL, the London mayor's transport authority, which has long opposed the PPP deals, and the two private-sector consortia that run the PPP contracts. Tube Lines' contract, which covers the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, runs until the end of 2032. Metronet's two contracts, covering the rest of the network, expire four months later."

"Mr Kiley told the Financial Times (and anyone else that would listen to him, as a similar story appeared in last night's Evening Standard) that lines of authority on the Underground had to be clean and clear and they were not at present. "The PFI contract with Alstom should be terminated.......It isn't right that you can truly be responsible for train operations without having responsibility for the maintenance and the renewal of the physical plant," he said.

Claim your refund if you were affected

Don't forget to claim your refund under the Customer Charter if you couldn't use the Northern Line and were unable to use your ticket



"any refunds are being carried out through the Customer Charter scheme and customers must complete one form per delayed journey.

You can either apply online at www.tfl.gov.uk/tuberefund or by picking up a form from any London Underground station. Customers can claim now for each disrupted journey and should not wait until their ticket expires."

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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