Department of Transport

Norris sets new London Underground quality of service objectives

date 26 March 1996   source Department of Transport   type Press release

Steven Norris, Minister for Transport in London, today set quality of
service objectives for London Underground to achieve in the next
three years.

These include standards for:

*trains arriving on time
*number of scheduled trains running
*passengers queuing for less than three minutes for a
ticket
*escalators in use at any one time
*lifts in use at any one time

Targets for customer satisfaction ratings will cover:

*train service
*train and station information
*customer security and safety

A. staff helpfulness and availability
B. train and station cleanliness

Mr Norris said:

"Customer satisfaction with London Undergrounds quality of service
has improved by around a sixth over the last five years. The targets
which I have set the Underground for the next three years are
intended to build on that success. "They will require a significant
further improvement across a range of activities of greatest concern
to passengers, such as journey reliability, lift and escalator
availability and the cleanliness of the network."

Mr Norris said it will be very difficult for London Underground to
sustain the same rate of progress it made in the early 1990s, but he
shared LULs view that higher standards can and must be achieved.

"The targets I have set today reflect that. They also take into
account the temporary line closures which will occur as essential
tunnel maintenance is carried out over the next 18 months or so, and
the increases in scheduled passenger miles which LUL are planning."

For the first time, objectives have been set for a three year period,
rather than for one year, in order to help London Underground in its
medium-term planning. Performance against the objectives will also
be externally audited for the first time in 1997.

So that passengers have a realistic benchmark against which to
measure London Undergrounds performance in the short term, Mr Norris
also announced interim targets for 1996-97.

Interim targets for 1997-98 will be set later this year or early next
year.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The new targets, and the existing targets and performance to date
this year, are set out below.

Measure 1995-96 1995-96 1996-97 1998-99
Target To date Target Target
Train
service
regularity
(% headways achieved) 95.7% 95.8% 95.7% 96.2%

% schedule operated - 96.4% 96.5% 97.2%

Ticket purchase
(% queuing under
3 minutes) 98% 97.5% 98% 98%

Escalator
availability 92% 92.7% 92% 94.5%

Lift availability 95% 95.7% 96% 96%

Train service CSR 77% 76% 76% 78%

Train and station
information CSR - 73% 73% 76%

Customer security and
safety CSR 83% 82% 83% 83%

Staff helpfulness &
availability CSR 69% 68% 69% 71%

Train & station
cleanliness CSR - 68% 69% 71%


CSR = Customer Satisfaction Rating.

2. From April, London Transport will be changing the way some of its
customer satisfaction survey questions are asked, in order to make
the measures more responsive to relatively small changes in service
quality. The new objectives take account of these changes. The
1995-96 figures in the table above have been adjusted so that they
can be compared with the new objectives, but for comparisons with
earlier years, London Transport should be consulted.

3. The targets were set following consultation with the London
Regional Passengers Committee, the Citizens Charter Unit and members
of the Prime Ministers Advisory Panel on the Citizens Charter.

Railnews Archive ::: 1996-03-26 DoT-001

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