London Underground (Hansard, 2 June 1992)

§ Mr. Norris

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the chairman of London Transport on 27 May setting new quality of service objectives. The text of the letter was as follows.

Text of letter from John MacGregor, Secretary of State for Transport, to Wilfrid Newton, Chairman on London Transport, setting new quality of service objectives. Cecil Parkinson wrote to you in December 1989 setting quality of service objectives for both London Underground Limited (LUL) and London Transport's bus services covering the period up until 31 March 1992. This letter sets new objectives for London Underground which will run until 31 March 1994. I will be writing to you shortly with new objectives for LT bus services. There have been important developments for the Underground since 1989. In June 1991 the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) published their report on LUL. They concluded that more investment was needed in the existing network to bring it up to an acceptably modern standard. In recognition of this, last year's public expenditure rsettlement provided record levels of grant to London Transport, which will allow record levels of investment by LUL. By 1993/94, London Underground will be investing over £700 million per annum in its core business, the level which, in evidence to the MMC, LUL said was necessary to make real progress towards providing an acceptably modern metro. A number of important initiatives currently being progressed within LUL should help to ensure that these public resources are used to best effect. In November 1991 London Underground published their Company Plan, an extensive agenda of improvements to the safety, quality and efficiency of passenger services. I welcome this initiative, and will continue to support London Underground through the various stages of its implementation. I also look forward to the publication of LUL's Customer Charter which will set out the Underground's plans to increase its accountability to its customers, and make commitments to continuing improvements to services. The objectives which I am setting you today are intended to build on the twin thrusts of better customer awareness and higher quality services. I am setting LUL twelve new objectives, some covering aspects of your services which we have not formally monitored before. There are specific targets in each objective to be achieved by 31 March 1993 and 31 March 1994. I am setting you revised objectives for improvement in service volume and regularity, lift and escalator reliability and the availability of ticket purchasing facilities. I am also looking to you to build on the successes of recent years and achieve a further reduction in the levels of violent crime on the Underground. I am for the first time setting you an objective covering station closures, a major 525W source of inconvenience to passengers. And, as recommended by the MMC and in line with the Government's Citizen's Charter initiative, I am setting you five targets for improving levels of customer satisfaction—with the cleanliness of your stations and trains, the quality of the information with which you provide your customers, and the helpfulness and availability of your staff. The detailed objectives are set out in the Annex to this letter. I believe that these objectives will provide the right challenge for London Underground in its continuing efforts to deliver the high standard of service which today's, and tomorrow's Underground customers expect and deserve. I will be monitoring performance against them regularly, and will be asking you to consider how you can best publish your results, so that passengers can see for themselves what progress is being made.

The text of the new objectives is as follows:

Customer Satisfaction Measures¹ LUL will improve the quality of passenger information on trains to achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 78 per cent. by 1 April 1993 and 83 per cent. by 1 April 1994. Information on stations will achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 76 per cent. by the same date in 1993 and 81 per cent. by the same date in 1994. The average levels of performance in 1991–92 were 71 per cent. and 68 per cent. respectively. Seventy six per cent. of customers will rate train cleanliness as acceptable or better in 1993 and 81 per cent. in 1994. Eighty five per cent. of customers will rate the cleanliness of stations as acceptable or better in 1993 and 87 per cent. in 1994. These targets compare with average performance levels of 68 per cent. and 82 per cent. respectively in 1991–92. Staff helpfulness and availability will improve so that 83 per cent. of customers consider it acceptable or better in 1993 and 86 per cent. in 1994. Average performance in 1991–92 was 78 per cent. ¹ The measure used is the percentage of customers rating performance as "acceptable" or better, using data collected during LUL's monthly customer research surveys.

Trains in service in each peak LUL will improve the percentage of scheduled trains running in the morning and evening peaks from 96.4 per cent. in 1991–92 to 97.5 per cent. by 1 April 1993 and 97.8 per cent. by 1 April 1994.

Train service intervals LUL will achieve 91 per cent. of planned intervals between trains on frequent services by 31 March 1993. This is a new measure on which little data on current performance currently exists, it is therefore to be reviewed for 1993–94.

Escalator service in each peak Throughout each peak hour period, for both the morning and the evening peaks, LUL will achieve 87 per cent. escalator availability by I April 1993 and 88 per cent. by the same date in 1994. This compares with a current performance in the peaks of 86 per cent.

Lifts in service in each peak Throughout each peak hour period, both morning and evening, LUL will achieve 85 per cent. availability of lifts by 1 April 1993 and 88 per cent. by the same date in 1994. This compares with a current performance of 85 per cent.

Station closures In each four week period, the number of station closures of twenty minuters or longer, and which are due to staff absence or equipment failure, will be reduced to fewer than 50 by 1 April 1993 and fewer than 30 by the same date in 1994. This compares with a current average of 100 closures per four week period.

Ticket purchasing facilities In 1992–93, LUL will maintain the percentage of stations across the network offering at least one form of ticket issuing facility at 99.9 per cent. Before 31 March 1993, a revised target will be set including the condition that change should be available.

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Violent crime The number of violent crimes committed against Underground customers will reduce further in 1992–93.