Last week saw the resignation of Tim O’Toole, the managing director of London Underground, at a critical time for the network and amid uncertainty whether plans to add trains and relieve overcrowding on several lines will go ahead.
[UKPRwire, Wed Mar 04 2009] Last week saw the resignation of Tim O’Toole, the managing director of London Underground, at a critical time for the network and amid uncertainty whether plans to add trains and relieve overcrowding on several lines will go ahead.
Mr. O’Toole, who has held the post for six years, will step down at the end of April and return to his home and family in the US. His departure coincides with a growing row over a £5 billion shortfall in the public funding for the upgrade and expansion of the Tube network.
Mr. O’Toole has commented on Gordon Brown’s failure to fulfil promises made when he carried out the part-privatisation of the Tube six years ago when he was Chancellor. It is now uncertain whether plans to add some 20-30% more trains per hour on the District, Metropolitan, Circle, Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines over the next few years, as well as replace the signalling to allow for this, will come to fruition.
Following the collapse of Metronet, one of the two government-appointed companies charged with upgrading and maintaining the network, LU is struggling to find the funds to carry out the work it was contracted to complete.
Mr. O’Toole’s resignation will be a blow to London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who was relying on Mr. O’Toole’s experience and skills to carry out as much of the upgrade as possible with the reduced funding.
Although Mr. Johnson claims the Tube upgrade to be his chief priority, his decision to fund Crossrail, a new main-line railway due to be built under London by 2017, may come at a cost to the upgrade of the Underground network. LU is to cut 1,000 jobs and delay station improvements.
The mayor praised Mr. O’Toole’s service, saying he had “made huge progress in delivering an improved Tube after decades of under investment”, while London’s Commissioner of Transport, Peter Hendy, said Mr. O’Toole was to thank for “getting London moving again so quickly after the terrorist attacks of July 2005”.
Mr. O’Toole said he was sorry to leave the position after six years and that “London Underground's customers and employees can look forward to the continuing transformation of the Tube with the delivery of major projects between now and the London 2012 (Olympic) games.”
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