'Central of chaos - it's line faces years imploded'

DIRE WARNINGS FROM TUBE WHISTLEBLOWERS OVER UNDERINVESTMENT

- Ross Lydall

TUBE insiders today raised alarming new concerns about the state of the Central line and warned passengers that faced years of chaos due to "inexcusable" delays in upgrading the clapped-out trains.

Whistle-blowers contacted the Evening Standard to reveal a multitude of "foreseeable" problems on the line caused by years of under-investment.

Transport for London does not deny that ongoing funding problems mean that it is having to patch-up the 30-year-old Central line trains in a bid to keep them running for another 10 to 15 years as it cannot afford to replace the fleet.

But it insists that safety is paramount and it would never allow an unsafe train to enter service. The line carries 200 million passengers a year but has suffered chronic train shortages since November, largely due to motors failing. The whistle-blowers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed:

When an emergency timetable is introduced next month to "remove uneven gaps" between trains, stations in central London are at risk of being closed at short notice to prevent platforms becoming dangerously over crowded at peak times.

The new timetable will be "closer to the Night Tube" in terms of its frequency, especially at the eastern end of the line, where passengers will also have to rely on replacement buses.

Not a single train restored under the delayed, six-year £500 million Central Line Improvement Programme is likely to re-enter full service this year.

Some trains are being sent back into service with only three-quarters of their motors working and the others immobilised. This places extra demand on the working motors and may result in less efficient braking.