London Underground (Hansard, 6 April 2000)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 16 March 2000,Official Report, columns 322-23W, relating to the public-private partnership contracts for the London Underground, what arrangements were made for potential contractors or consortia of contractors not specifically asked to consider submitting a bid for the work to ascertain the details of the work to be bid for; how potential contractors in other European Union countries were able to ascertain the work to be bid for; if the arrangements complied with European Union requirements; and if he will make a statement. [116686]

§ Mr. Hill
The invitation to pre-qualify for the London Underground service contracts was published in the usual way, in the Official Journal of the Economic Communities (OJEC References 1999/S 118-87811EN and 1999/S 25408995). The invitation was open to all potential contractors and full details were supplied to those who responded to the OJEC notice and executed a confidentiality and tender process agreement.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was the total sum expended by London Underground Ltd. on the recent re-conditioning of Piccadilly line trains; what the further sum of £500 million for Piccadilly line trains referred to in his answer of 2 March 2000,Official Report, columns 331-32W relates to; what the estimated life of the proposed and current Piccadilly line stock is; and if he will make a statement. [117268]

§ Mr. Hill
London Underground are currently spending £136 million on re-conditioning the Piccadilly line rolling stock. They estimate that this will extend the effective working life of the rolling stock to 2014.
The £500 million referred to in the question was taken from a briefing document published by London Underground when the Public Private Partnership competition was launched in June 1999. They were LU's estimate of how much they then believed it would cost to implement the performance regime under development of the first 15 years of the PPP. The new rolling stock is anticipated to have a life expectancy of 40-50 years.
545W
Of course, under the terms of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) for LU, infrastructure companies will be required to implement a combination of specific projects and performance enhancements specified in output terms. The PPP will not specify particular amounts of money to be spent, nor particular works to be carried out. It will be for bidders to decide what they have to do to meet the performance specification for each infrastructure company.