TfL Annual Report 2013-14: TfL carries more passengers than ever as customer satisfaction reaches all-time high

Transport for London (TfL) has published its draft Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2014, which will be considered by the TfL Board at its next meeting on Thursday 3 July.  

This has been another record-breaking year, with London Underground, DLR and London Overground all carrying record numbers of passengers more safely and reliably than ever before. 

The number of passengers on the bus network also continued to rise, recording the highest number since 1959, with 40 per cent of passengers receiving free or discounted travel.   London Underground carried a record 1.26 billion passengers, meaning that the network carried a third more passengers than it did a decade ago.   

Customers are already benefiting from massive improvements and investment to the Tube network. 

The first air-conditioned walk-through trains are now serving customers on the Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines, modern signalling on the Victoria and Jubilee lines is delivering faster and more frequent services and a focus on further improving reliability has reduced delays to passengers by 10 per cent compared to last year.  

Following the extension of London Overground from Clapham Junction to Surrey Quays last year, London Overground carried 135 million passengers. 

Capacity will be boosted next year with the introduction of 57 new carriages, increasing capacity by 25 per cent.  

Customer satisfaction across London Underground, DLR, tram, London Overground and buses also reached record levels.   On the roads, the lane rental scheme has cut disruption at traffic hotspots on the TfL road network by 46 per cent. 

Around 99 per cent of TfL road improvement works and 90 per cent of planned utility works now take place outside peak hours, compared to 30 per cent before the scheme was introduced, where it applies.  

TfL is delivering these improvements while continuing to deliver huge savings. The £16bn savings and efficiencies programme to 2020/21 saved £188m this year against a target of £137m, bringing the total secured savings to £12bn. 

This programme is central to helping to meet the challenge of operating one of the world's oldest and most extensive transport networks while, at the same time, upgrading and modernising it to accommodate London's rapid growth.  

Operating performance:

  • Victoria and Jubilee lines on the Tube are now among the most advanced metro services in the world, running trains every two minutes or less at peak times
  • The DLR achieved record scores for punctuality with 99.3 per cent of trains on time
  • London Overground carried a record 135 million passenger journeys and received an 89 per cent satisfaction rating by independent rail watchdog, Passenger Focus
  • The TfL 'Lane rental scheme' cut disruption at traffic hotspots by 44 per cent. Around 99 per cent of TfL works and 90 per cent of planned utility works took place outside peak hours, compared to 30 per cent before the scheme was introduced, where it applies
  • Bus passenger satisfaction reached a record high of 83 and 97.7 per cent of scheduled bus services operated
  • 90 per cent of Oyster queries from customers were resolved within 24 hours compared with the customer service industry standard of five to 10 days

Delivery of service improvements and upgrades

  • Continued progress was made on the Northern line upgrade, which will increase line capacity by 20 per cent by the end of 2014 and with far fewer closures than previous upgrades
  • 'Turn up and go' assistance extended to cover all London Overground stations, so that disabled people needing assistance can arrive at stations and have staff help them without needing to book in advance
  • Accessible boarding ramps introduced at 19 more Tube stations, continuing LU's programme of accessibility work so that by 2016 a third of Tube platforms will have level access, up from 15 per cent last year
  • Major progress on the construction of Crossrail, reaching the halfway point in January, on time and to budget
  • Expansion of Barclays Cycle Hire into southwest London to give more Londoners the opportunity to cycle
  • Extended the Barclays Cycle Superhighway between Bow and Stratford, with a segregated lane for cyclists
  • Began work to improved key junctions such as Euston Circus and Bow Roundabout to make them safer for all road users
  • Set up an Industrial HGV Task Force to focus on the risks heavy, particularly construction, vehicles pose to cyclists
  • Launched Operation Safeway, a joint initiative with the Metropolitan Police Service, deploying officers at key junctions across the capital, enforcing road safety and giving advice to all road users.  Over 14,000 fixed penalty notices were issued in the initial seven week pilot
  • Published 'Safer Streets for London', our new road safety plan, to cut death and serious injuries on the capital's streets. We also described our six key commitments which continue to work towards our target of a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured by 2020
  • Announced trials for the introduction of Pedestrian Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique, or 'pedestrian SCOOT' - the first of its kind the world which will use technology to detect how many pedestrians are waiting to cross the road
  • Launched a new website with new innovative features to make journey planning easier for our customers on desktop and mobile devices
  • New technology fitted to 900 buses to reduce their nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 88 per cent
  • 200 new Routemaster buses in service on seven routes
  • Final system testing on extending contactless payment to Tube and rail services later this year
  • Plans for new 24-hour weekend Tube on core lines from 2015 and proposals for significantly better customer service at London Underground stations by bringing staff out of underused ticket offices and locating them at ticket machines, ticket gates and platforms

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Over the past year Transport for London (TfL) has carried a staggering number of customers on our Tube, trains and buses.  We've also seen record numbers travelling on the River Thames and the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has surpassed 30 million hires.

"A relentless focus on efficiency meant that we were able to freeze fares in real terms, while carrying on with the vital job of modernisation.  We're investing in new trains and buses, Crossrail is progressing at an amazing pace, we're overhauling our roads and making them safer for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as improving accessibility to ensure more people can get around the capital more easily.  All this work is essential if London is to continue keep up with the phenomenal pace of change in our city and the challenge of huge population growth.  That's why I will continue to act as a champion for the capital and fight for vital investment in transport.  London is the motor of the UK economy and improving our transport network isn't just in the interest of our great city, but the rest of the UK too."  

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, Chair of TfL's Remuneration Committee, said: "TfL has to deliver on stringent operational and strategic targets and the management team and TfL staff are to be congratulated on another successful and record breaking year.    "Customers are benefiting from massive improvements and investment to the transport network which is carrying record numbers of passengers more safely and reliably than ever before.  It's great to see customer satisfaction across virtually all transport services also at an all time high this year."  

London's Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, said: "Over the last year we carried record numbers of passengers across our services in line with burgeoning population and employment growth and further improved reliability to reduce delays to passengers.  We've also carried forward a massive programme of transport investment and focused on delivering our savings and efficiencies programme, saving £188m against a target of £137m.  We will continue to work hard at delivering greater value for money for fare and tax payers than ever before."

Remuneration:

The base pay of the Commissioner and most of the Chief Officers was frozen for a fifth consecutive year.  

The base pay and the total remuneration of the Commissioner and all of the Chief Officers remains significantly lower than that paid in comparable transport operations, infrastructure and engineering companies where TfL competes for high quality staff.  

Research by remuneration consultants Towers Watson shows that the base pay of all TfL's Chief Officers is on average 77 per cent of that market rate and that their total compensation is on average 50 per cent of that market rate.  

The total remuneration of the Commissioner and most of the Chief Officers in 2013/14 was significantly lower than was the case in 2012/13.  This is because, under one-off arrangements put in place in respect of targets set for the London 2012 Games, Performance Related Pay awards for targets achieved in 2010/11 and 2011/12 were both paid in 2012/13.  

The number of TfL staff (excluding Crossrail) who received total remuneration over £100,000, including those paid above this amount due to severance payments, was 326 in 2013/14 compared to 298 in 2012/13.  The number of Crossrail staff who received total remuneration of over £100,000 was 40 in 2013/14 compared to 30 in 2012/13. 

This is largely due to a significant increase during the year in work to modernise the London Underground and build Crossrail.    On the Tube, major stations, trains, track and signalling are being totally replaced or upgraded to provide more transport capacity for a rapidly growing city and to provide our customers with more reliable services.  There was a sharp increase in the work underway to build Crossrail, which will add 10 per cent to London's rail-based public transport capacity when it opens in 2018.  

Both programmes are among the biggest capital investments in Europe and required the employment of further highly qualified engineers and project specialists to carry out the work.  In addition, existing project staff who earn a base salary of less than £100,000 have worked additional overtime as work to modernise the Tube has stepped up, taking their total remuneration to over £100,000.