Leader: eBay to save public transport? Don't laugh

A lot of people who travel on London's underground railway will this week be acutely aware of problems on the Northern Line. Why should you care if you don't live in London or indeed use that form of transport?

Today it emerged that engineers at the company that runs the Northern Line are turning to eBay to find parts needed for vital radio systems and other spare parts. Expect such a trend to continue.

Many passengers will be alarmed that infrastructure is so old there aren't replacement parts readily available from manufacturers and suppliers now. Parts of the Northern Line are indeed almost 100 years old. (To give you some idea of the Tube as a 'world first', Bram Stoker actually refers to characters travelling that way in Dracula, which he wrote well before the twentieth century.) Past tabloid stories have focused on engineers finding replacement parts at London's Transport Museum.

Saying rail professionals are using eBay sounds awful. But read the stories further and the engineers do say they are turning to some small outlets - albeit second-hand shops - that cater to businesses.

The real answer here is that all of us deserve modern transport systems, ones which probably wouldn't break down so much in the first place. Remember this isn't just a debate about rail systems, under or over ground. We might hear wonderful stories about Moscow's underground system but how many people around the world would swap their nation's airlines for Aeroflot?

Until that utopia arrives, let's not belittle eBay as the market putting together those looking for equipment with those selling it. Much grander e-marketplaces, to revive a term, have failed and it seems the people's market may come to the rescue.

Time to check whether normal service has resumed on the Northern Line.