Livingstone to run the PPP

Ken Livingstone will finally agree today to assume responsibility for a partly privatised Tube system he has previously denounced as lethal to passengers and a "one-way shovel" for taxpayers' money.

After marathon talks and months of litigation, the Mayor of London has dropped European legal action aimed at stopping the £16bn public-private partnership (PPP) over finance and safety concerns. He will take over as soon as the final contracts are signed, possibly in April. If the legal action had continued, the deal would not have been completed until 2006. The PPP is already nearly three years behind schedule.

Under the deal, the state, through Mr Livingstone and his transport commissioner, Bob Kiley, will run the trains. But two consortiums will hold 30-year leases to maintain parts of the infrastructure.

Critics believe the plan repeats the mistakes made in the privatised railway industry. Mr Livingstone and his aides have repeatedly called it a "nightmare version of Railtrack".