HC Deb 15 December 1998 vol 322 cc439-40W
Dr. Tonge

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what extra funds his Department has given to London Underground since August 1998 for the provision of the new trains on the Northern Line. [64112]

Ms Glenda Jackson

The Department does not provide funds specifically for the new Northern Line trains. However, when making decisions on the overall level of funding for London Transport, the Government take into account the payments which London Transport are required to pay to PFI contractors. This includes the deal with ALSTOM for the new Northern Line trains.

Dr. Tonge

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list(a) the number of train cancellations and (b) the punctuality performance on Northern Line services for each day since 1 November. [64105]

Ms Glenda Jackson

This information is not available in the form requested. London Underground measure their performance against a series of Key Performance Indicators and data on performance are collected for weekdays only and presented for each 4-week period.

In the period from 9 November to 4 December, a total of 406 trains were cancelled at weekday morning and evening peak times out of a total number of 3,360 scheduled trains. This means that 87.9 per cent. of scheduled trains were in service during the period compared with the target of 98.3 per cent.

London Underground base their punctuality measure on whether the scheduled time interval between trains—the 'headway'—was achieved. This is expressed as a percentage of the total number of headways during weekdays. The following table sets out the latest data available from London Underground and covers the period from 2 November to Friday 4 December (inclusive).

Date Percentage of headways achieved
2 November 89.3
3 November 91.2
4 November 90.5
5 November 85.1
6 November 88.4
9 November 85.0
10 November 85.4
11 November 88.5
12 November 89.3
13 November 92.4
16 November 91.7
17 November 88.4
18 November 88.2
19 November 88.6
20 November 88.8
23 November 90.2
24 November 92.5
25 November 91.9
26 November 89.3
27 November 91.0
30 November 83.7
1 December 86.5
2 December 79.5
3 December 89.6
4 December 84.9
Target 94.4

Dr. Tonge

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many complaints his Department has received concerning the service on the Northern Line since 1 September. [64106]

Ms Glenda Jackson

Since 1 September the Department has received 26 letters relating wholly or mainly to the poor service on the Northern Line. Establishing the total number of letters which refer to poor performance on the Northern Line could be done only at disproportionate cost, because letters are often wide-ranging and only the main issue raised is logged.