TUBE bosses have admitted that Met line train services from Amersham and Chesham suffer serious problems and they have offered little hope for the immediate future.

A team of managers from London Underground Limited told a public meeting at Chesham Town Hall on Thursday that they were doing their best to improve poor services but were fighting an uphill battle with "clapped-out" equipment.

Met line service manager Kevin Hafter said: "I could sit here for some time giving you a long list of incidents and failures since the timetable came in some you will be familiar with.

"It is the case that the Met line is relatively unreliable in the overall scheme of things it's not a reliable railway.

"The equipment is in broad terms clapped out but it's perfectly safe."

Mr Hafter said months of delays which had led to Chesham Town Council calling for the crisis public meeting were caused mainly by the fact that there has been no signal box in the Watford area since August.

He said: "The wiring in the signal box is around 55 years old, of a type that's not particularly robust and has been degrading for some while. The decision was taken that we needed to completely rewire that facility."

LUL reaffirmed its commitment to the Chesham branch line and promised to review its decision to stick with virtually the same timetable next year.