Upgrade of the Thameslink rail route across London is taking an "excessive" amount of time, the Public Accounts Committee announced on Tuesday.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge MP said: "It was clear as long ago as 1989 that the Thameslink route needed to be upgraded but passengers will not start to see the benefits until the 2020s.

"The excessive time taken to get the Thameslink project off the ground means that passengers have to wait too long – over 30 years – for this upgrade."

She added that procurement of new trains through a £1.6Bn PFI deal has taken over three years longer than expected and the planned completion date for the upgrade has been put back until 2018.

"But meeting the timetable for delivering the new trains will be very demanding and risky," she went on. "We are also sceptical about using PFI to fund this project.

"It is alarming that the Department for Transport did not construct a public sector comparator to understand better the relative costs, risks and rewards of choosing a PFI funding route over a public one."

The Committee also expressed concern that the Department's core Thameslink team consists of just five people.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Difficulties in the financial markets, caused in part by uncertainty regarding the Euro, alongside the complexity of the deal and our drive to secure maximum value for the taxpayer, did lead to a delay in concluding the rolling stock contract. But we remain confident that the trains will be delivered at the right time."

(Photo: Thameslink)

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