INITIAL results have been published for Metronet Rail’s performance during the first year of the London Underground PPP. In April 2003 the firm assumed responsibility for maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure and rolling stock on nine of LU’s 12 lines. Bonuses and penalties are payable for good or poor performance.
Metronet Rail BCV Ltd, responsible for the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines, finished the year to March 31 2004 with a penalty of -ú4·9m against a forecast of -ú5m. Metronet Rail SSL Ltd, which looks after the Metropolitan, District, Circle, Hammersmith & City and East London sub-surface lines, ended with a bonus of £4m against a forecast of £5·1m. MRBCV is contesting additional penalties amounting to £6·7m, around half of which relates to ’Lost Customer Hours’ following the derailment at Chancery Lane in January 2003.
Executive Chairman of Metronet Rail John Weight said the first year had been ’challenging’, not least because the company had inherited ’a massive programme of remedial engineering works’ after the derailment. MRBCV brought forward a £70m programme to overhaul the 85 Central line trains, leading to the best availability for 11 years. Although lessons have still to be learnt in completing engineering work on time, Weight felt that ’we have made a satisfactory start overall’. n
