§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in their opinion or to their knowledge in that of London Underground, the delays on the Central Line since 1 January are in any way due to inadequate funding of the system.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish)The problems on the Central Line cannot be attributed to one cause. However, with the £ 750 million modernisation programme currently being undertaken by London Underground, the Central Line benefits from more investment than any other part of the existing network.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
67WAWhat have been the causes of delays on the Central Line of the London Underground since 1st January.
§ Lord Mackay of ArdbrecknishComprehensive information on the cause of each delay is not held in the department. However, the most frequent causes of delays under London Underground's control which have exceeded 15 minutes have included defective rolling stock (26 instances), signal failure (7 instances), track failure (7 instances) and track fire (3 instances).
Factors causing delays outside LUL's control have included passenger action (9 instances), security alerts (12 instances), and external causes (i.e., weather) (11 instances).
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What, using the type of calculation usual in measuring the value of road improvements, has been the overall cost (a) to passengers and (b) to their employers and employees of delays on the Central Line of the London Underground since 1st January.
§ Lord Mackay of ArdbrecknishIt is not possible to measure the overall cost using such a calculation, as there are no figures available for the number of people affected by the delays, which happened at different times of the day, and over different areas of the Central Line.
§ Lord Kennetasked her Majesty's Government:
What have been the delays experienced by passengers on the Central Line of the London Underground since 1st January, and how many have been inconvenienced by them.
§ Lord Mackay of ArdbrecknishBetween 1 January and 29 January, passengers on the Central Line experienced a total of 99 delays over 15 minutes long, of which 39 were over 20 minutes. Details of the numbers of passengers affected by the delays are not available.