Consortium of Amey and Bechtel admits it will miss Christmas deadline for underground upgrade

The consortium charged with completing the upgrade of the Jubilee underground line in London will be fined £10m for every month the work is delayed.

The consortium, called Tube Lines and made up of Amey and Bechtel, admitted last week it would miss its Christmas deadline for completing the works. Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, which is paying for the works, said yesterday that the consortium would pay £10m for every month of delay. He said: "In the contract they will pay us £10m a month for not meeting the deadline."

The problem comes as the dispute between the two bodies over the forthcoming cost of the 2010-17 workload has been taken to arbitration, with the two bodies still more than £2bn apart in their valuation of the work.

Tube Lines is responsible for the maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. The dispute follows the collapse into administration in 2007 of the firm responsible for the remainder of the upgrade works, Metronet.

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