Tube appropriation opening of £400m could see upgrades strike the buffers Business

Plans to ascent the Piccadilly line could be postponed. Photograph: Graham Turner

Boris Johnson faces carrying to carry over improvements to the London Underground, lift fares or cut ride services as a row over a £400m blood vessel appropriation opening comes to a head subsequent week.

Plans to put faster and some-more visit trains on the Piccadilly line could be pushed back, whilst the capital"s train network could face cuts, carrying stretched significantly underneath Johnson"s prototype as London mayor, Ken Livingstone.

The break has come since of a brawl in between the open in isolation partnership executive carrying out the work, Tube Lines, and the mayor"s ride body, Transport for London (TfL), over the cost of the functions programme for the subsequent seven-and-a-half years.

The judge of the PPP scheme, Chris Bolt, has estimated the cost at £4.4bn. TfL has usually budgeted for £4bn and, notwithstanding hopes that Bolt competence revoke his estimate, the Guardian understands that he will demand on his strange costing, withdrawal TfL with a appropriation opening of £400m.

It is accepted that Bolt is scheming to leave open a window of event for TfL to cut behind on upgrades due to be carried out by Tube Lines, that embody putting faster and some-more visit trains on the Northern and Piccadilly lines.

If TfL cannot find the cash, afterwards loitering upgrades or creation cuts elsewhere in the £9.2bn bill are the infancy expected options among transparent signs from the Department for Transport that the state of the open finance government will not concede a bailout.

TfL is additionally dumbfounded by Bolt"s primary idea that a £400m appropriation opening should be plugged by debt lifted by TfL, rather than Tube Lines, even though the PPP make up was imposed on London underneath the element that it would send risk from the taxpayer to the in isolation sector.

A TfL orator pronounced Tube Lines"s losses had been arrogant by an estimated £400m in government secondment fees paid to the company"s co-owners: Amey, a auxiliary of Ferrovial, the Spanish infancy shareholder in airfield organisation BAA; and Bechtel, the US plan government specialist.

Johnson is austere passengers should not have to bear the weight of the appropriation shortfall and has lobbied Tube Lines shareholders to do the work some-more cheaply.

"Londoners will be angry if they are asked to cruise any rebate in the range of critical blood vessel upgrades and improvements," pronounced the spokesman. However, Bolt believes that the fees are excusable for a PPP agreement and Tube Lines"s costs could climb significantly if the association was denied entrance to comparison Amey and Bechtel staff.

It is thought that TfL will need to cruise authorised movement over the debt issue if Bolt does not shift his mind.

The TfL orator added: "Should a appropriation opening arise, it is required that Tube Lines and the shareholders are asked to lift all the required finance, as the PPP contracts creatively demanded."

A lobbying organisation for businesses, London First, pronounced alternative tools of TfL"s ride network – that includes a train network that carries some-more than 2 billion passengers a year – competence have to be cut. Baroness Jo Valentine, London First arch executive, said: "It competence meant a little prioritising, and by that I meant difficult choices about cuts elsewhere."

A TfL orator denied train services could be underneath threat. "We are not considering any rebate in the front line services or collateral investment to account any intensity PPP appropriation gap," he said.

Boris Johnson increases vigour on Ferrovial trainer Rafael del PinoTransport for London"s forked anxiety to Ferrovial and Bechtel in the statements could be a shift of strategy by Boris Johnson. The London mayor has so far avoided targeting Ferrovial by name but he appears dynamic to enlarge the vigour on Tube Lines"s largest shareholder. Ferrovial and Bechtel are both wakeful that TfL is meddlesome in deliberating a takeover, even if the appropriation of such a move – the equity could cost about £300m – is unclear.

Ferrovial, a multibillion-pound commercial operation with interests all over the universe is penetrating to say a clever British presence. The authority of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, met Johnson last month to plead the open in isolation partnership and Tube Lines"s much-criticised ascent of the Jubilee line.

Del Pino, who hereditary the pretension of authority from his father, is eminent as a worldly operator. People informed with his government character hold he would have listened to any critique from the mayor but would have hold his ground. If today"s statements are anything to go by, his finalise faces serve tests as the blood vessel appropriation brawl grinds to a conclusion.