Dean Finch, chief operating officer of FirstGroup, the bus and rail company, is to take over from Terry Morgan at Tube Lines on June 1.

Mr Morgan had previously said he would leave Tube Lines, in charge of maintaining and upgrading track, stations and trains on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, on November 1 to become non-executive chairman of Crossrail, the company building the cross-London rail link.

Mr Finch takes over as Tube Lines approaches the deadline to finish complex upgrade work to allow trains on the Jubilee line to run faster and closer together.

The work is meant to be concluded by the end of this year.

Tube Lines is also involved in complex negotiations with London Underground and the arbiter of its 30-year contract over its funding needs for the second 7½-year period of its contract, starting in July 2010. The arbiter has said the company needs £5.1bn-£5.5bn, while Tube Lines asked for £7.2bn and London Underground said the work should cost £4.1bn.