Tube failure: Passengers on broken down Jubilee line London Underground train to get £40

Friday, May 25, 2012
7:58 AM

The hundreds of Tube passengers stuck for hours on a faulty train in a Jubilee line tunnel will be paid £40 each in compensation for their nightmare journey.

More than 770 passengers had to be walked through tunnels in sweltering conditions on Wednesday evening.

London Underground has apologised for the disruption, which was caused by a faulty train between Baker Street and St Johns Wood that led to the suspension of the Jubilee line between London Bridge and Finchley Road.

The train which broke dwon was one of two decorated in special Diamond Jubilee livery.

Yesterday there were more delays on the Tube because of a signal failure at Embankment.

The Circle and District lines were disrupted throughout the day, while there were also problems on the Hammersmith & City line and London Overground.

The failures have led London Assembly member and Labour’s transport spokesman Val Shawcross to warn London faces being an “international laughing stock” during the Olympics.

She said: “The Olympic Games opening ceremony is now less than nine weeks away and still ordinary commuters are being hit by delays caused by faulty track, faulty trains and faulty signals.

“Passengers on the Jubilee line have endured months of shutdowns for maintenance and upgrade works that were supposed to stop this happening. So why are there still issues with the line? What will happen if the chaos happens during the Olympic Games?

“Quite simply the Mayor needs to get a grip, otherwise London could end up as an international laughing stock.”

London’s transport commissioner Peter Hendy has warned there will be Tube failures during the Games.

He told the London Assembly: “The reason why we will successfully get through the Olympics is not because there will be no failures at all - I’m sure there will be - the system is large and some of it is fairly old, but we are doing our best.

“I would like to say it will be perfect but realistically it will never be perfect. We’re driving the performance up and the failures down.”

Mike Brown, London Underground’s managing director, said: “The Tube is staffed and maintained to the highest standards and to a level that has made it the safest significant sized railway in Europe.

“The fact is that we have just recorded the most reliable year on record, carrying more passengers than ever before and operating more services. But we will never be complacent and accept that in the last few days our customers have not had the level of service they are right to expect.

“That is why we and the Mayor are committed to working to improve reliability even further as we go into this exciting summer for London.”