LU delivers Mayor’s target of 30% reduction in delays

28 January 2016
Huge programme of innovation and modernisation has seen reliability improve dramatically since 2011
"A reliable Tube network is crucial to London's economic success. I am delighted that we have delivered such a step-change in performance, and thanks must go to the thousands of staff who have helped to make better performance a reality for millions of Tube users every day. We can be rightly proud of the progress we have made in the last few years, especially considering the record numbers of passengers using the network"
Boris Johnson, MP
The Mayor of London
  • Delays on the Underground now at their lowest-ever level

Delays on the Tube have fallen to their lowest-ever level as Transport for London (TfL) announced they had hit the Mayor's performance target.

TfL has cut delays by nearly 38 per cent since 2011, following on from the Mayor setting a 30 per cent improvement target. A far-reaching programme to deliver this improvement has included:

  • The sustained investment in modernisation of Tube signalling, track and trains. On the Victoria, Jubilee and Northern lines, reliability has improved by 74 per cent, 67 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
  • New techniques to predict when maintenance on the lines is required to prevent unexpected equipment failure and delays to customers.
  • Working with the British Transport Police to respond to incidents more quickly by getting engineers to incidents under 'blue light' conditions.
  • Having engineering and operations staff in one control centre to speed up incident recovery times.
  • The installation of covers on train passenger alarms, which has significantly reduced the number of accidental activations.

This has been delivered while carrying record levels of customers on the Tube, with 1.3 billion journeys made in 2014/15.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:

'A reliable Tube network is crucial to London's economic success. I am delighted that we have delivered such a step-change in performance, and thanks must go to the thousands of staff who have helped to make better performance a reality for millions of Tube users every day. We can be rightly proud of the progress we have made in the last few years, especially considering the record numbers of passengers using the network.'

Nick Brown, Managing Director of London Underground, said:

'Our aim is to give our customers the very best service possible, while building a modern and efficient network that is capable of meeting the needs of London's growing population. We are working to increase capacity on the Tube to meet this need - introducing new trains, track and signalling and rebuilding and improving our stations. At the same time we have relentlessly driven down delays so that our customers can get to where they need to go with minimum disruption.'

London Underground (LU) is carrying out a huge programme of modernisation with major stations, trains, track and signalling being updated or replaced to provide more capacity and reliability for a growing city. The next major phase of this work will bring faster, more frequent and more reliable journeys to millions of passengers who use the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines. A vital modernisation of the signalling and train control systems for those lines is expected to begin later this year and the main benefits will be delivered by 2022. This will mean the frequency of trains running during peak periods will increase to 32 trains per hour in central London - a train every two minutes - with frequency increases at other times as well. Line upgrades are at the core of LU's investment programme, which will deliver more than 30 per cent increase in capacity.

Redevelopment work to increase capacity at key stations and make them step-free is also underway at a number of stations including Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. More than half of LU's 270 stations have now been modernised or refurbished to make them brighter and easier to use, with improvements such as tactile strips, better CCTV and help points, electronic information displays in ticket halls and on platforms and improved seating and lighting.

Notes to Editors:

  • 2011 Calendar Year performance was 29m Lost Customer Hours. 2015 Calendar Year performance was 18m Lost Customer Hours, exclusive of industrial action, giving an improvement of 38 per cent.
  • To reflect the underlying reliability of LU services, figures quoted are exclusive of industrial action.
  • New air-conditioned walk-through trains are being introduced on 40 per cent of the Tube network. The Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines currently have these trains in service and they are currently being introduced on to the District line, where the full fleet will be introduced by the end of 2016.