Metronet down the tube | City & Business | Finance | Express.co.uk
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Accountancy firm Ernst & Young will be appointed administrator after an independent arbiter awarded the company only £121million in emergency funding — some £330million short of what the
business required.
The Metronet consortium, owned by engineers WS Atkins and Bombardier, construction group Balfour Beatty and utilities EDF Energy and Thames Water, is responsible for maintaining and
upgrading nine of London’s 12 Underground lines. It has run into difficulties because of overspending.
Independent arbiter Chris Bolt said Metronet deserved no more extra money because it had not been working efficiently and economically.
However, because the company was set up to service a public/private partnership, debts might be restructured and contracts renegotiated to ensure the work gets done.
Metronet was cut off from access to money by its lenders earlier this year after it emerged an £8billion investment plan was expected to incur a further £750million of costs.
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