The new chief executive of the company upgrading some of London’s busiest Underground lines has expressed frustration at the system’s public sector owners for starting a formal arbitration process over a dispute on future costs.

Dean Finch, of Tube Lines, said long-running negotiations over the company’s future costs had already produced formal agreements on cutting £1.5bn of costs on work over the next seven and a half years starting in July 2010.

Only about 10% of differences between the two sides remained unresolved, he said.

London Underground, the public sector company that funds the system and employs drivers, signallers and station staff, made a formal application for arbitration over its future costs yesterday.

Financial Times