Metronet Rail was one of two infrastructure companies (the other being Tube Lines Ltd) in a public-private partnership (PPP) with London Underground. A consortium of private companies, Metronet was responsible for the maintenance, renewal, and upgrade of the infrastructure (track, trains, tunnels, signals, and stations) on nine London Underground lines from 2003 to 2008. Following financial difficulties, the company was placed in administration in July 2007. In May 2008, the company's responsibilities were transferred back into public ownership under the authority of Transport for London (TfL). In June 2009 the National Audit Office estimated that the failure of the Metronet PPP contract cost the taxpayer up to £410million, adding that "most of the blame for Metronet's collapse lay with the consortium itself." The administration complete, the company was wound up in December 2009. History In the late 1990s, the Labour government proposed a public-private partnership (PPP) to reverse years of underinvestment in London Underground. The underground trains themselves would be operated by the public sector, however the infrastructure (track, trains, tunnels, signals, and stations) would be leased to private firms for 30years to allow for improvements to be made. Metronet was founded in 1999 as a consortium of companies to bid for PPP contracts. The equal shareholders were Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Adtranz (later Bombardier Transportation), SEEBOARD (later EDF Energy), and Thames Water. To pay for the works, each company provided £70million of equity. A further £2billion was raised using bank loans, and £600million from the European Investment Bank. The consortium awarded contracts to its own shareholders, for example rolling stock contracts were awarded to Bombardier Transportation. This closed shop supply chain approach was later criticised for causing high costs for the consortium. Formation of the PPP Following a two-year bidding process, Metronet and Tube Lines were selected as the preferred consortiums in May 2001. In April 2003, Metronet began to maintain, upgrade and renewal London Underground infrastructure as part of the PPP. Metronet Rail had been the successful bidder for the two 30-year contracts for the following tube and sub-surface lines: BCV (tube) lines contract: Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines. SSL (sub-surface) lines contract: Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. Tube Lines, held the contract for the other London Underground linesJubilee, Northern and Piccadilly. Both Metronet and Tube Lines were colloquially referred to as "infracos". Contracts were worth around £17billion over the 30-year