On Thursday 15 January 2026 the High Court (Technology and Construction Court) handed down judgment in Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd v Transport for London [2026] EWHC 61 (TCC), granting TfL’s application to lift the automatic suspension.
The case concerns TfL’s next-generation contract to collect revenue from the 4 billion journeys made on the London public transport system every year, including the underground, docklands light railway, buses, national rail journeys, and river services. TfL collects £6.2 billion in fares each year. The contract, nicknamed ‘Proteus’, is estimated to be worth £800 million to the contractor over seven years.
On 15 July 2025 TfL decided it would award the Proteus contract to Indra Sistemas S.A. rather than the incumbent provider, Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd. Cubic brought a claim challenging that decision in August 2025, which triggered an automatic suspension preventing TfL from signing the contract with Indra. TfL applied to lift the automatic suspension and the matter came to a hearing on 11 December 2025.
In a judgment handed down on the morning of 15 January 2026, the Court ordered that the automatic suspension be lifted, clearing the way for TfL to sign the Proteus contract with Indra. The judge accepted that TfL’s system was “probably the largest and most extensive revenue collection system in the world outside the United States of America”, but agreed with TfL’s submission that damages would still be an adequate remedy for Cubic if it ultimately succeeded at trial. TfL signed the contract with Indra later that day.
The case has featured extensively in the press, including in the London Evening Standard, The Times, International Comparative Legal Guides, Solicitors Journal, and the Railway Gazette.
Patrick Halliday and Oliver Jackson appeared for the successful applicant, TfL. They were instructed by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP working with the TfL in-house legal team. The judgment is available here.
