Metronet Goes Underground

Atkins and Balfour Beatty today wrote off their investment with PPP underground consortium Metronet after the company filed for administration yesterday in a move unions fear will trigger a wave of redundancies.

Stakeholders, which also include Bombardier Transportation, EDF Energy and Thames Water, have already lost in excess of 100m in respect of their interests with Metronet and today transferred ownership to Ernst and Young, the appointed administrator.

Metronet have said that the suppliers would be paid for invoices already approved and going forward, suppliers would be paid usual rates on existing terms and conditions during the administration.

Transport for London (TfL) immediately stepped in and set aside £700 million to ensure safe running for the rest of the year of the nine Tube lines that were under Metronet’s control.London Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "My message to all Tube users is that they should be assured that this will not undermine services and that all trains will continue to run and all stations will remain open."

The directors of Metronet will continue in office and will work closely with the administrators who have access to government funding put in place with the PPP administration model.