Metronet Rail was an asset-management company responsible for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the infrastructure, including track, trains, signals, civils work and stations, on several London Underground lines.

[4] Following the election, the new Labour government promptly began work on setting up PPPs, stating that this would address the perceived period of underinvestment in the Underground.

[12][4] The selected model called for the operation of services on the Tube to remain in the hands of the public sector while the infrastructure (including the track, trains, tunnels, signals, and stations) would be leased to private firms for a 30 year period, during which they would enact various improvements.

[12][4] A public denial that the newly-formed railway infrastructure company Railtrack would be involved in the PPP was issued by the government after it was made clear that some parties would refuse to bid if it was.

[13] The equal shareholders in the venture were Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Adtranz (later Bombardier Transportation), SEEBOARD (later EDF Energy), and Thames Water.

[14][15] The bidding process was protracted by political factors, including public disagreements on the topic of PPPs between then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Deputy Prime Minister Jon Prescott.

During early 2001, Bob Kiley, the first commissioner of Transport for London (TfL) and an outspoken critic of the prospective PPPs,[16][1] was put in charge of the process.

[19] Contracts valued at around £17 billion over the 30-year period were issued, under which these companies received around £660 million each month from the Government, although this amount was subject to reductions if targets are not met.

Furthermore, Metronet committed to delivering substantial improvements to the network, by refurbishing, upgrading and renewing track, trains, tunnels, signals, and stations.

[3][5] At a cost of £7 billion, Metronet promised substantial investment during the first 7.5 years of the contract (2003 to 2010):[3] In June 2004, the National Audit Office criticised the complexity of the PPP deals, noting they offered "the prospect, but not the certainty" of improvements.

[20] In August 2004, Metronet was declared at fault by an accident investigators' report into a May 2004 derailment at White City, for failing to implement sufficient safety checks despite being ordered to do so by TfL.

[18] Specific analysis included the finding that Metronet had not performed in an economic or efficient manner, and had failed to follow good industry practice.

During early 2008, the Department for Transport rejected claims that the PPP was to blame for the collapse of Metronet, and that it was "predominantly a corporate failure", with "structural weaknesses [that] led to its own downfall.

"[33] In 2010, the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee reprimanded the Department for Transport for its failure to heed National Audit Office warnings about the company's management.