Tube upgrades may cause months of commuter misery (From Times Series)

Tube upgrades on the Northern Line may cause months of misery for commuters from the Barnet borough

3:42pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in News By Tristan Kirk

IMPROVEMENTS to the Northern Line may not be finished by January 2012, even with a major programme of closures over the next 18 months.

Tube Lines, the consortium responsible for upgrading the line, is proposing closures at 11.30pm Monday to Thursday from July and a series of service suspensions on weekends to get the work done.

However, the firm's chief executive Dean Finch told London Assembly members today a dispute with London Underground may stop it hitting its completion deadline.

He said: “It depends on how we agree the closure programme.

“We may be able to get to the 2012 date, but we don't know at this stage what quality of access we will get.”

Today's meeting was held to investigate the fractious relationship between the two firms, and whether problems which have beset Jubilee Line improvements are likely to be repeated on the Northern Line.

Work on the Jubilee Line was due for completion at the end of last year, but is now due to be finished in October.

A dispute is still rumbling over the extent of closures to the Northern Line for the necessary upgrade work to be completed.

There are 13 Northern Line stations in the Barnet borough, which extend up on two branches, terminating at Edgware on one side and High Barnet on the other. Frequent service disruptions at weekends along sections of the line have already been implemented over the past 18 months as station and track upgrade work has been carried out.

But Tube Lines says it needs to further close the line for the equivalent of more then 35m customer hours, which is well above London Underground's estimate that the necessary work can be done by losing just 21.5m customer hours.

Richard Parry, interim managing director of London Underground, said: “I have concerns at the approach that is being taken. We have an obligation to facilitate access Tube Lines say they need.

“It's a concern to me they are pushing to increase the amount of access they have.”

There is also an ongoing row over how much the upgrade work should cost.

Chris Bolt, the arbiter on disputes between the two companies, told today's meeting there are now only “limited opportunities” for Tube Lines to change the way it handles upgrades to the Northern Line in the wake of the problems that beset the Jubilee Line work, but he added lessons can still be learnt.