Her joy didn't last. Anna's transit tale, both pleasure and woe, captures the larger plight of London's famous Underground, whose future is now up for grabs in a fight between Bob Kiley, the former supremo of New York City's much-improved subways, and the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Tube has never been more important to London's success as a livable center of commerce. Three million riders use it daily. But the Tube is faltering, like an aging actor who can still draw crowds with the old standbys but struggles to master new material.
Some infrastructure is over a century old.
Breakdowns and delays are mounting. Critics say Tube managers are out of their depth in executing the serious refurbishment the network requires. Most serious of all, negotiations broke down last week between the government and Kiley over how to run the system and fix it up. But Kiley, a blunt-talking veteran of both the cia and the Harvard Business School, does not want Underground managers to work by remote control through private contractors, waiting to see whether performance targets are met. He is now poised to sue, hoping to prove that the PPP is incompatible with the law giving London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, authority to set the city' s transport plan.