§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will call for a report from London Underground on how long St John's Wood underground station has been without two functioning escalators; what the cost is of the replacement of the two escalators; what additional cost has been 541W incurred as a result of delays in the installation of the second escalator; how many dates have been announced for the completion of the work; for what reason London Underground supplied him with inaccurate information about the completion date for installation of the second escalator; and what action has been taken in respect of the London Underground employees responsible for this situation. [123456]
§ Mr. Hill[holding answer 23 May 2000]: These are operational matters for London Underground, who have informed me that the escalator replacement project at St. John's Wood station started on 11 September 1998 and involves complete replacement of both machines. During the works, there has been one 'up' escalator and a staircase.
The total cost of the replacement of the two escalators is £4,688 million, including the relevant publicity, policing and standby engineers etc. for the cricket matches. There have been extra costs of £150,000 due to the overrun of the project.
Completion of the second escalator was originally announced for 18 May but has been put back to 21 June 2000. I understand the delay in completion of the project has been due to water entering the mechanism causing a build up of sediment on the steelwork; this meant that repairs had to be made to corroded steelwork and new drainage installed. London Underground's escalator replacement contractors were unable to work on the escalators while this work was taking place (19 January to 17 February 2000).