Monday of misery for commuters

Central line suspended. District and Circle lines closed. Signal failure on the Northern line. Faulty trains on the Metropolitan. A partial bus strike. For thousands of commuters the Monday morning crawl to work in London collapsed in frustration, with three Tube lines suspended and others suffering delays.

The Central line was closed due to computer problems. The District and Circle lines were suspended because engineering work from the weekend ran over into the morning rush-hour.

The three lines are maintained by Metronet under the private public partnership (PPP) scheme for the Underground. Mayor Ken Livingstone said Metronet had "entirely unnecessarily ruined thousands of Londoners' journeys". London's Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said: "Yet again, the responsibility for most of this lies with Metronet." Metronet has apologised for the "unacceptable'' disruption.