Lovells

Lovells has advised Tube Lines, the contractor responsible under the London Underground Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Lines, in securing a deal with Alstom Transport to improve performance of the train fleet used on the Northern Line.  The deal, amongst other things, creates a new performance regime that is more closely aligned with the PPP arrangements between Tube Lines and London Underground thereby incentivising Alstom Transport to improve train reliability.  

When Tube Lines entered into the PPP in 2002, it inherited from the public sector a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract under which Alstom Transport is responsible for providing and maintaining the train fleet used on the Northern Line.  Since the PFI contract had remained materially unchanged since coming into effect in 1995, much of the machinery regulating Alstom's performance was not suitable for enabling Tube Lines to perform the obligations it had undertaken under the more recent PPP arrangements. Overall, the package of amendments is intended to enable both parties to work together to reduce the impact of fleet-related faults on Northern Line passengers.                          

The Lovells team was led by Andrew Briggs, a London based partner in the Project Finance Unit, along with projects assistants James Pitman, Chris Cross and Dominic Richardson.  

Lovells continues to assist and advise Tube Lines in the management of its responsibilities under the PPP.  This is an important change to one of its most important supply chain arrangements that should deliver significant service improvements to customers on the Northern Line. The transaction underlines the close working relationship that Lovells continues to have with the contractor tasked with delivering one of the largest and most complex PPP arrangements in recent times.