TfL paid £18m for replacement services last year

Transport for London spent more than £18 million providing alternative transport for passengers last year when services failed to run.

The bill is made up of the costs of laying on replacement buses, cabs and boats, as well as adverts pointing out the lack of trains, and extra staff, exclusive figures revealed today.

It covers failures by London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and London Overground between June 1 last year and May 31 this year. The spending came to light after a Freedom of Information request by the Evening Standard. Tube bosses spent £1.9 million on staff to explain their lack of service at bus stops, £12.5 million on replacement buses, £101,000 on what it called "closure support" - such as porters for heavy luggage - and more than £85,000 on a boat service.

TfL's total bill for buses on rail replacement routes was £14.9 million - £1.1 million more than the previous year, and a huge increase on the £9million spent in 2009.

The Docklands Light Railway spent £307,000 for passengers to take taxis or other routes to their destination and nearly £100,000 on leaflets and posters to "market the disruption". The cost of its replacement buses reached £760,000.

London Overground had to pay £1.6 million for buses, £270,000 for "project management, bus service consultancy, security and information production staff" and £415,000 producing leaflets and training drivers on replacement routes.

A spokesman for TfL's corporate governance directorate said: "The TfL transport network is undergoing a huge and essential programme to upgrade its ageing infrastructure - vital to cope with a growing population and to support the economic development and growth of the capital and the UK.

"To make these improvements we have to interrupt normal services from time to time, and to minimise inconvenience to passengers we almost always hire replacement buses and publicise our plans as much as possible."

Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat member for the London Assembly, said: "The bill for replacement Tube services has soared due to the immense delays in upgrading the Jubilee line. Such huge expenditure is just one further reason why a new approach to Tube upgrades is so necessary."