IT WAS not an auspicious start. Proudly holding his Tube card aloft, the British Transport Secretary. Sir George Young, predicted the sale of London Underground would be an election winner.
The only problem was Sir George clearly did not know the system he is so enthusiastically selling. First of all he had to be shown where to buy a ticket; then he got stuck in the automatic barriers and had to be rescued by a member of staff after he put the ticket into the wrong side.
No doubt when Sir George eventually boarded the Tube he thanked his lucky stars that London Underground had not implemented staff cutbacks on the Circle Line.
Despite being in charge of Britain's transport system, Sir George, like many of his colleagues, prefers to travel to work in a chauffeur driven car. Or if the weather is fine, and traffic bad, he sometimes chooses to cycle. Commuting on the oldest underground system in the world is rarely an option.
Once upon a time, travelling on the London Underground was a trouble free experience. It took you from one side of the capital to the other within minutes; and then it was just a short escalator ride to street level.
Today a journey on the Tube, however short, is a daily purgatory. It is immediately apparent to anyone who uses it that the system is gradually crumbling. Years of government underfunding have taken their toll.
For the 2.5 million passengers who use the 11 lines every day the list of complaints is endless. Overcrowded and dirty, the system is plagued by electrical and signalling problems, which at best lead to delays; at worst the Tube doors suddenly open in a tunnel.
Stations are often closed at weekends because of understaffing; a working escalator is a rarity; and trains which should run every two minutes now come at half hour intervals - or even more infrequently on a bad day.
Over Christmas the whole power system, including the back up, failed twice, leaving several million revellers, tourists and commuters stranded in the capital. With many forced either to walk home or sleep on the streets, only the taxi drivers were happy.
Since 1992 the British government has cut London Underground's funding every year. In last November's budget, the Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, docked another £700 million from its grant. This led to yet another increase in fares in January as officials tried to make up the shortfall.
Last week London Underground officials were forced to abandon more than 200 repair and extension tasks because of the "dire" financial situation.
However, in spite of the cutbacks, the British government has refused to allow London Underground to abandon work on Lady Thatcher's dream project - the extension of the Jubilee line, currently £150 million over budget. This line was the result of 1980s power politics at Docklands and Canary Wharf, and, in spite of London Underground's protestations over mounting costs due to tunnelling problems, the work continues.
Although Sir George refused to concede that the system is heavily underfunded, he has persuaded the Treasury to agree that London Underground's sale proceeds will help fund the £1.2 billion repair bill.
After promising that privatisation would result in a "world class system" and that the passengers had "nothing to fear", Sir George added that fundamentally nothing would change. Fare prices, through ticketing, station interchanges, travel cards, concessionary fares and safety standards will still be determined by a central government regulator.
Three options for the sell off will be considered in the summer if the Conservatives win the general election and, while Sir George says he has no current preference, he has insisted there is "no question of breaking up the network".
The sell off should be completed by 2000 or 2001 and London Underground believes that by then the system will be in a "desperate state" and "severely underfunded", as there will be little while it awaits privatisation.
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have promised to scrap the privatisation plans if they win the general election, and they predict that up to 40 stations could close if privatisation goes ahead.
The Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, has accused the British government of once again selling off a public asset cheaply. He has argued that the Underground's value is £13 billion rather than Sir George's estimate of £2 billion.
"The fear of many people is that once again a key public service will be sold off at a fraction of its true value so that a few people can make a vastly inflated profit with no guarantee of a proper service for the future," he said.
One only needs to examine recent events on the newly privatised Waterloo to Bournemouth railway line to glimpse what the future may hold for the capital's commuters. Stagecoach, the private operator of South West trains, suddenly decided it had too many drivers and issued immediate redundancy notices. The next day the company was forced to cancel all but a handful of trains because it did not have enough drivers, and thousands of commuters were consequently left stranded.
New drivers are currently being trained, but normal service will not be resumed for weeks. In an attempt to appease its customers, Stagecoach has offered free travel until the situation is resolved. No doubt a great offer; it's just a pity there aren't enough trains.
Interesting to note: Stagecoach was among the first private companies to express interest in buying a Tube line - to add to its portfolio.