HC Deb 19 November 2001 vol 375 cc32-9W
Clive Efford

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what contingency plans are in place for the London Underground in the event that PPP is found not to be value for money. [14499]

Mr. Jamieson

The Government have consistently made clear the PPP arrangements for the modernisation of London Underground will only go ahead if they provide value for money and the safety arrangements are accepted by the Health and Safety Executive. If the modernisation plans were not to proceed, we would expect that London Underground would transfer to Transport for London in its current form.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what was the annual average excess waiting time for passengers buying a ticket at the 10 stations on the London Underground with the greatest excess waiting time in(a) each year since 1997 and (b) for each month of 2001. [14599]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: This is an operational matter for London Underground (LU). LU monitors Ticket Purchase Time at ticket offices as part of the "Journey Time Metrics process". The excess time for ticket purchase is the queuing time experienced when purchasing a ticket at a ticket window. LU have provided the information, set out in the following table, for each full financial year since 1997–98.

Average excess queuing time (seconds) for 10 ticket offices with the greatest queuing time by financial year
Year Excess time (seconds)
1997–98 188
1998–99 196
1999–2000 188
2000–01 206

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many

£
Year Train Operator annual salary Train Operator average annual earnings Station Supervisor Annual salary Station Supervisor average annual earnings Station Assistant Annual salary Station Assistant average annual earnings
1991–92 1 n/a 2 n/a 3 n/a
1992–93 4 n/a 5 n/a 6 n/a
1993–94 23,345 23,275 25,376 23,199 14,109 15,920
1994–95 23,812 23,974 26,009 23,834 14,462 16,167
1995–96 24,647 24,858 26,789 24,734 14,896 16,722
1996–97 25,017 25,207 27,646 25,954 15,373 16,756
1997–98 25,192 25,482 28,392 26,869 15,788 17,163
1998–99 25,545 26,051 29,641 28,020 16,483 17,841
1999–2000 26,592 27,177 30,263 29,026 16,829 18,782
2000–01 27,656 28,077 31,781 30,491 17,674 19,597
2001–02 28,762 7 33,052 7 18,381 7
1 @£19,250 made up of basic pay of £13,324 + unsocial hours and Sundays
2 @£18,131 made up of basic pay of £11,879 + unsocial hours and Sundays
3 @£10,214 made up of basic pay of £7,057 + unsocial hours and Sundays
4 @£20,116 made up of basic pay of £13,924 + unsocial hours and Sundays
5 @£18,948 made up of basic pay of £12,414 + unsocial hours and Sundays
6 @£10,673 made up of basic pay of £7,374 + unsocial hours and Sundays
7 Not available at this time.

Note:

1. Average annual earnings are not available for 1991–92 or 1992–93 because the systems to calculate these were introduced in 1993.

2. Train operators average earnings figure based on both train operators and instructor operators.

3. Station supervisor group includes four grades of staff.

4. The annual salary shown for station supervisors is the maximum contractual sum that could be earned.

5. Station assistant group includes two grades of staff.

6. The annual salary shown for station assistant staff is the maximum contractual salary for the lower ranking station assistant grade. The maximum contractual salary for the other grade is about £2,T00 a year more.

lost passenger hours were incurred by each of the shadow infrastructure companies of the London Underground in (a) 1999, (b) 2000 and (c) each month of 2001. [14600]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: The information is as follows: (a) Full year information is not available for the 1999–2000 financial year. (b) London Underground (LU) have been "shadow running" the PPP contracts since April 2000. Lost Customer Hours will be the main means of calculating "availability", which is the reliability measure under the PPP, and will be one of the measures on the basis of which payments to the Infraco will be calculated. It should be noted that Lost Customer Hours can be the responsibility of either Infracos (for example as a consequence of asset failures) or LU (for example as a consequence of the non-availability of drivers).

Service disruptionLost customer hours 2000–01 by Infraco
Infraco Lost customer hours (full year)
BCV 6,302,317
JNP 5,449,242
SSL 11,587,434

Note:

BCV = Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo and City lines.

JNP = Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.

SSL = District, Metropolitan, East London, Hammersmith and City and Circle lines

(c) Detailed in-year operational information of this nature is a matter for London Underground.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what was the(a) basic pay rate and (b) average annual earnings of London Underground (i) drivers and (ii) station staff in each year since 1991. [14601]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: London Underground have provided the information in the table and following notes:

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions at which London Underground stations where new escalators have been installed within the past 10 years, these escalators have had to be taken out of use because of defects where the resulting closure was for a period of longer than one week; and who the manufacturers concerned were. [14594]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: This is an operational matter for London Underground (LU). LU does not hold the information requested in a readily available form, and it could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions on what date re-signalling of the Central Line was completed; how many signal failures on the Central Line there were in each month since the re-signalling was completed; and which company did the work. [14595]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: The majority of the re-signalling of the Central Line was completed in November 1998, but some features remain to be delivered. There are still two sites, Woodford and Ealing Broadway, where Automatic Train Operation (ATO) has to be fitted—this is planned for completion in December 2001. Automatic Train Regulation (ATR) is still to be fitted to the signalling control system and this is due by spring 2002.

The number of signal failures on the Central Line each month since the major part of the re-signalling was completed in November 1998 is set out in the table.

Number of signal failures on the Central Line since November 1998
Year/month Number of signal failures causing delay
1998
November 43
December 93
1999
January 63
February 61
March 88
April 66
May 70
June 76
July 97
August 80
September 73
October 76
November 49
December 61
2000
January 66
February 62
March 76
April 88
May 118
June 107
July 139
August 147
September 79
October 100
November 122
December 123

Number of signal failures on the Central Line since November 1998
Year/month Number of signal failures causing delay
2001
January 122
February 92
March 132
April 106
May 128
June 102
July 106
August 117
September 121
October 40
Total 3,289

Note:

The work was carried out by Westinghouse Rail Systems of Chippenham, Wiltshire, (formerly Westinghouse Signals) a subsidiary company of Invensys

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if any train sets in use on the(a) Central, (b) Jubilee and (c) Northern lines of the London Underground have, in any month during the period since they were purchased, failed to achieve their original contractual requirements in terms of mean distance between failure; and what the relevant contractual figures are. [14593]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: Yes. Both Central and Jubilee Line trains have had months during the period since they were purchased where they failed to achieve the original contractual requirements in terms of mean distance between failure. The contractual figure for the Central Line is one failure attributable to the manufacturer every 25,000 kilometres. The comparable figure for Jubilee Line trains is 12,500 kilometres.

Northern Line trains have fully met their contractual reliability performance. These trains have not been purchased but are leased under a PH arrangement.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport. Local Government and the Regions what was the average annual mean distance between failure of trains on each line on the London Underground for(a) each year since 1996 and (b) each month of 2001. [14592]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: On (a) I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him of 20 July 2001, Official Report, column 529W.

On (b), detailed in-year operational information of this nature is a matter for London Underground.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what, for each line of London Underground, was the average number of failures of(a) points, (b) signals and (c) trains in each year since 1997; and what the targets for improvement for each line are in the first five years of the public-private partnership. [14589]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: This is an operational matter for London Underground (LU).

For the answers to (a) and (b), I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) on 18 July 2001, Official Report, column 24W.

Service disruptions due to train failures: 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01
Non LT 167 249 134 27
Bakerloo 1,144 1,237 879 968
Central 2,423 2,165 2,304 2,864
District 1,082 995 981 834
Jubilee and East London 1,239 2,376 1,722 1,709
Metropolitan and Circle (Circle and Hammersmith) 2,170 1,380 1,568 1,463
Metropolitan and Circle (main) 1,238 1,065 1,047 1,247
Northern 4,229 5,942 3,727 1,674
Piccadilly 3,115 3,886 2,934 2,609
Victoria 994 821 920 1,053
Total 17,801 20,116 16,216 14,448

The PPP contracts incentivise the infrastructure companies to minimise the number of failures from points, signal, trains and other assets. The companies will be paid more for better performance and be penalised for causing delays. The penalties relate to how many passengers are affected by any delay, and there is no ceiling on the level of the penalties. This level of penalty will provide very strong incentives to improve the reliability of the infrastructure.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what was the London Underground weighted annual(a) predicted average passenger journey time and (b) passenger excess journey time for (i) each year since the inception of these measures and (ii) each month of 2001. [14597]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: On (i) London Underground (LU) have provided the information in the table showing scheduled journey time and excess journey time collected as part of their "Journey Time Metrics" process for each full financial year since 1998–99. Annual data are not available before 1998–99.

Annual percentage of peak trains operating
Percentage
1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01
Bakerloo 94.5 97.1 95.8 95.3 88.4
Central 96.1 97.1 95.6 96.8 96.5
Waterloo and City 95.3 99.6 97.7 99.3 97.3
Victoria 97.2 97.8 97.8 99.0 97.1
Jubilee 96.5 98.6 98.7 96.8 93.3
Northern 95.8 97.0 91.7 97.2 97.7
Piccadilly 95.8 96.6 94.1 94.5 90.6
District 96.3 99.2 98.3 98.8 95.5
East London 96.3 99.2 98.3 98.8 94.4
Metropolitan 95.8 98.5 98.1 97.7 95.6
Circle 91.4 92.6 92.4 90.8 84.5
Hammersmith and City 93.5 96.9 96.4 95.9 93.8
Total 95.8 97.5 95.6 96.8 94.4

(b) Detailed in-year operational information of this nature is a matter for London Underground.

(c) LU have provided the following information on the number of services disrupted due to train failures in each full financial year since 1997–98.

Journey time (weighted minutes)
1998–991 1999–20001 2000–011
Scheduled journey time 35.56 35.58 35.58
Excess journey time 6.46 6.55 7.45
Total journey time 42.02 42.13 42.83
1 Full year

On (ii) detailed in-year operational information of this nature is a matter for London Underground.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what average annual percentage of peak hour trains ran on each line of the London Underground in(a) each year since 1996 and (b) each month of 2001. [14596]

Mr. Jamieson

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: The information is as follows:

(a) London Underground have provided the information set out in the table showing the percentage of peak trains operating in each full financial year since 1996–97, taking account of all cancellations, including those—such as security alerts and passenger action—which are outside their control.

Ms Bridget Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what plans his Department has to increase the number of CCTV cameras in stations and train carriages on London Underground. [15566]

Mr. Jamieson

Under the plans for a publicly run, privately built Tube, there will be improved CCTV in every station, monitoring exits, ticket halls, platforms, passageways. As trains are replaced or refurbished, CCTV will also be introduced in every train carriage.

Ms Bridget Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will ask London Underground to install the moving block computerised system in order to replace current signalling systems. [15567]

Mr. Jamieson

The Tube modernisation plans are based on infrastructure contracts for maintenance and renewal, which are output driven. As long as key improvements, such as shorter journey times and improved reliability, are made to London Underground's strict specifications, the method of achieving them will be a matter for the infrastructure companies. Moving block signalling is one possible option.

Ms Bridget Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many rolling stock failures have been reported on(a) the Jubilee Line and (b) the Northern Line in the past month. [15570]

Mr. Jamieson

Detailed in-year operational information of this nature is a matter for London Underground.

Ms Bridget Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many trains are run on(a) the Jubilee Line and (b) the Northern Line by London Underground. [15569]

Mr. Jamieson

This is an operational matter for London Underground. They have advised that there are up to(a) 59 train sets serving the Jubilee Line and (b) 106 serving the Northern Line.