Union fumes over chaos on the Tube

The union urged London Mayor Boris Johnson to take urgent and decisive action to terminate the Tube Lines contract on the network after it emerged that Tube bosses were calling in accountants to "examine massive and secretive payments to Tube Lines's shareholders."

Mr Johnson said that he is considering legal action against the privateers over a key funding ruling which threatens to derail Tube improvement plans.

He said that Londoners were being "asked to write a blank cheque" to prop up "ailing and failing" Tube Lines.

The £1.7 billion extra Tube Lines claimed is needed to carry out essential LU upgrades - with £400 million being carried by TfL - will result in savage cuts and delays to the work being carried out, RMT general secretary Bob Crow warned.

"There is no point Mr Johnson threatening legal action when what Londoners really want is for the contract to be terminated and the whole disaster of Tube privatisation to be put out of its misery once and for all," Mr Crow said.

"Tube Lines's repeated failures and delays must surely be grounds enough for it to be fired, unless the contract is loaded so heavily in favour of the private sector that it can do exactly as it pleases regardless of the consequences for the transport system in London.

"We also want to know what TfL and the mayor mean by 'massive and secretive payments to Tube Lines shareholders.' That is a heavyweight allegation and implies that transport budgets have been creamed off behind closed doors by big business while jobs and services are threatened with savage cuts."

Chris Bolt, the arbiter for the Tube public-private partnership plan, ruled that the privateer's costs for the seven years from July 1 2010 should be £4.46 billion.

This was far less than the £6.8bn wanted by Tube Lines.

Mr Bolt proposed that TfL "either cut back on the Tube improvements promised to Londoners or simply provide more public funds without an effective scrutiny of Tube Lines's future plans."

Tube Lines's acting chief executive Andrew Cleaves added that the arbiter's decision could present Tube Lines with a significant challenge to deliver the upgrades required.