City Hall calls in Madrid metro boss to help sort Jubilee Line

25 August 2009

By Mike Brooke

CLOSURES on the Jubilee Line for upgrade works may now miss the December completion date and run into next year, a shock City Hall report reveals today.

Now the London Assembly is calling London Underground to account and has invited the boss of Madrid’s Metro to tell us how they manage to keep trains running during upgrading.

“We are investigating the impact of overcrowding and weekend closures on passengers,” said the Assembly’s transport committee chair Caroline Pidgeon.

“Passengers will be completely fed up to learn that they face more Tube closures over the coming months.

“I imagine people who live along the route are beginning to lose sight of the improvements after the inconvenience of what must seem like endless weekends without access to their Tube station.”

She added: “We need to understand why other metro systems such as Madrid can be upgraded without the amount of closures and disruption Londoners endure.”

The investigation involves both London Underground and the maintenance contractor Tube Lines appearing before the committee next month, along with the managing director of the Metro de Madrid to see what lessons we Brits can learn from the Spanish.

The Jubilee, which is the newest line on the London Underground, has had no weekend trains between Stratford, Canary Wharf and London bridge for several months because of the engineering work.