Transport for LondonLondon Underground
Skip to navigationUse of the LU network has grown steadily from2002/03, with a record 976 million journeysrecorded in 2004/05. Last year there were 971 million journeys, a particular achievementgiven the terrorist atrocities of 7 July 2005.Initially, these events caused a fall in passengernumbers. But as services on the affected Tubelines returned to normal, ridership began torecover. This resurgent demand meant that byOctober, LU passenger numbers were again atrecord levels.
Over the last three years, service volumes haveincreased significantly and - excluding the effectof the July 7 attacks - reliability has improved.In recognition of this, customer satisfaction hasreached record levels. This is a major achievementgiven that more and more people are using theTube. It reflects both underlying service improvements and the standard of customerservice provided by LU staff. All these factorscontributed to LU being named Train Operatorof the Year at the HSBC Rail Business Awards inFebruary 2006.
'London Underground and the PPP: the third year 2005/06'
Under the PPP contracts, the maintenance and upgrading of LU's assets - including the track, trains, signals and stations - is undertaken by two private sector consortia, Metronet and Tube Lines (referred to as the infracos).
Each year LU produces a detailed report on the performance of the PPP and the infracos. This year's report - 'London Underground and the PPP: the third year 2005/06' - was published in July 2006. The report notes that in an extraordinary year for LU, the infracos played a full andoutstanding part in the response to the terroristattacks of 7 July 2005, working quickly to restoreservices for customers.
However, the report also notes that, despite anoverall improving trend, day-to-day performancewas inconsistent and there was an unacceptablyhigh level of failures, many of which had severeimpacts on customers.
Achievements in delivering improved assets haveincluded the completion of the Wembley Parkstation rebuild, and the addition of a seventh carto each Jubilee line train, both by Tube Lines.Similarly, Metronet is now delivering therefurbished District line fleet on schedule.
However, the infracos failed to meet their keychallenges. Tube Lines made some progress in itsattempts to turn around the performance of theNorthern line, but its achievements remainedsignificantly short of the benchmark. Metronet wasunable to demonstrate that it had gained controlof its renewal programme, and is still behind in anumber of areas, including stations, with fewerthan half of the scheduled refurbishments andmodernisations completed by March 2006.
LU issued Corrective Action Notices to bothMetronet and Tube Lines for their repeated failurein these respective areas - a severe contractualmeasure requiring improved performance.
The situation for Northern line customers wasmade worse by a three-day suspension of theservice in October 2005. This was to allow forfull checks on, and remedial works to, the trains'tripcock systems. These are designed to stop thetrain if it wrongly passes a red signal. The checksand remedial works became necessary due to aloss of confidence in the tripcock system and TubeLines' ability to ensure adequate maintenance ofit, following repeated failures.
Customers also suffered the effects of anunacceptably high number of engineering worksoverruns - 207 or an average of nearly four perweek. Many of the overruns, caused by Metronetand Tube Lines, could have easily been avoided ifthe works had been better planned and managed.Looking ahead, LU has made it clear to Metronetand Tube Lines that consistency of performancemust improve.
This is especially important as TfL's InvestmentProgramme moves into a new phase, with complexline upgrade programmes due to be delivered overthe next 10 years.
The 30-year PPP contracts will undergo their first71/2-year review in 2010. It is essential that there issufficient funding to continue the improvements inthe second period, and that these improvementsare delivered in an economic and efficient way,as promised by the infracos.
The full PPP report is available attfl.gov.uk/pppreport.London Underground operational performance
| 2005/06 | 2004/05 | 2003/04 | 2002/03 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Passenger Journeys |
971 | 976 | 948 | 942 |
| Kilometres operated (millions) |
69 | 69 | 68 | 66 |
| Percentage of schedule operated (per cent) |
93.6 | 95.3 | 93.1 | 92.2 |
| Excess journey time (unweighted) (minutes) |
3.3 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 4.2 |
|
Passenger satisfaction |
78 | 78 | 76 | 75 |
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