London Underground

That is proof of what I say. I feel sorry for the London commuters who have to put up with that experience almost daily, and other passengers. The private consortiums have done the soft work—the relatively easy work—but even much of that has barely been done. A lot of the major work, however, such as new trains and major station rebuilds, has not been done. I suspect that much of the difficult and expensive signalling and the track work is also still outstanding. We should be given some detail on what still needs to be done, and how much of the important signalling and track work that was thought necessary has not been done. That is despite £1 billion of funding per annum from the Government. Metronet was grossly inefficient, and it was brought down by the cost overruns. The independent PPP arbiter deemed that they were Metronet's responsibility, and Metronet's response was to walk away, leaving a bill for the taxpayer. The hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) made a point on consultants, which I wish to repeat. The Government paid them £500 million for this contract, and it resulted in this situation just four years later. Their role has been a rip-off of the taxpayer.