NORTHERN LINE CROWNED THE MISERY LINE AS TUBE FAILURES RISE 30%

9.47.19am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Oct 2005

A new analysis of Tube performance by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats revealed today shows that delays on the Northern Line are more than 30% worse than when the Tube was privatised - even before the recent problems that have hit the line.

The figures, revealed in Mayoral answers to the Liberal Democrats, show that the Northern Line is now the only Tube line whose performance is deteriorating on the underground network. In the financial year 2003/04, Northern Line commuters faced 168 train, track and signal faults every month. In the first 16 weeks of the financial year, this has increased to 221 every month - an increase of 31.7%.

The increase is in stark contrast to every other line on the network which are all showing signs of marked improvement in the reduction of the number of train, track and signal faults.

London Assembly Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson, Geoff Pope, said:

"For all the extra investment that has been pumped into the Tube network it is deeply disappointing that the Northern Line continues to buck the trend and get worse.

"These new figures will confirm to passengers that the Northern Line is the misery line. What is particularly concerning is that signal and rolling stock faults are rising rapidly and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel for passengers.

"While it is welcome that every other line on the network has significantly improved, the Mayor alongside Tube Lines must develop and publish plans on how the Northern Line will get back on track and when passengers can expect the improvements they were promised."

ENDS

Notes to editor

The figures have been taken from Mayoral answer to Geoff Pope

1770 / 2005 - Tube failures

Geoff Pope

Please list the (a) track (b) signalling (c) rolling stock failures which have occurred on each of the London Underground lines in each of the last three years.

The attached table (Appendix C) sets out the numbers of failures on each line for the last two complete years (i.e. since the start of the PPP) and for the first four periods of the current year (to 23 July).  The figures represent the number of failures that were attributable to Infracos and that resulted in service disruptions of 2 minutes or more.

TOTAL NUMBER OF TRACK, ROLLING STOCK AND SIGNAL FAULTS 2003/04 TO PERIOD 4 2005/06 BY TUBE LINE

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 (1-4) Projected yearly total (based on figures for periods 1-4 2005/06) Increase/decrease %age incr/decr

Bakerloo 1693 980 223 832 -861 -50.9

Central 2834 2380 572 2297.75 -536 -18.9

Circle and Hammersmith & City 1528 1053 205 926.25 -602 -39.4

District 1654 1128 217 1287 -367 -22.2

East London 152 145 28 117 -35 -23

Jubilee 1470 1098 200 880.75 -589 -40.1

Metropolitan 1639 1403 328 1417 -222 -13.5

Northern 2046 2468 641 2694.25 648 31.7

Piccadilly 2162 1437 285 1072.5 -1089 -50.4

Victoria 1185 1189 224 1040 -145 -12.2

Waterloo & City 93 71 12 48.75 -44 -47. 6