£47m price tag for buses to replace Tube services during rebuilding work

More good digging by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon over the true cost to Londoners of the long-running (and very often over-running) Tube engineering works around the capital. This time it is the total cost of all the replacement buses she has unearthed:

London taxpayers will foot a total bill of £46.7 million for replacement bus services for the Tube, the Standard reveals today.

More than £13 million has been spent on buses to take the place of Jubilee line trains alone during engineering works and signal problems.

Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Lib-Dem London Assembly group and the transport committee, uncovered the figures following a Freedom of Information demand.

She said: “Too many people have faced disruption and utter misery due to the delays stretching over a number of years in completing so much upgrade work on the Tube, especially to the Jubilee line.

“It now adds insult to injury to know that on top of all this disruption for travellers the total bill for replacement bus services has been so high.” [Evening Standard]

Some costs are inevitable, even welcome, as huge work is needed on the Tube. However, poor management and poorly structured contracts has far too often led to working taking too long – causing not only get disruption for the public, delaying the improvements and – as Caroline is increasingly finding out (see also my story on the Jubilee Line costs) – running up extra costs for TfL too.