Lynne Featherstone

High noon with Tube Lines! In reality a working lunch with the Chief Exec of Tube Lines, Terry Morgan. Tube Lines is the private consortium who is contracted to look after the infrastructure on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.

Lunching with the enemy – having been a staunch, to put it mildly, opponent of the PPP, I guess the idea was to seduce me in their stylish Headquarters building with its posh conference room with stunning views of the river. Terry gave me a presentation to show me how much they are doing and how well they are doing.

Of course, the PPP companies now have to deliver what’s in the contract, so in many ways my real argument is with the Labour government who part-privatised the tube in a way that will deliver almost nothing in terms of relieving overcrowding and in which there is loads of work and profit for the lawyers – particularly in arguing over who is responsible for what.

One bit of new information surfaced of real interest – but it can’t go into the public domain – yet!