After years of disruption on the Jubilee Line new evidence has come to light revealing some of the real costs of the years of dragged out weekend closures.
Following extensive freedom of information requests Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, has now discovered that the costs of the weekend closures since April 2007 on the Jubilee Line include:
- 32 million passengers being affected by the weekend closures, leading to a loss in ticket revenue of a staggering £15.7 million
- Transport for London having to spend £13 million on replacement buses
Commenting on these immense figures Caroline Pidgeon said:
“A year ago the Mayor and Transport for London admitted that the upgrade programme on the Jubilee Line would slip once again. After years of disruption to passengers, communities and businesses they announced a further year of weekend closures which has only just finished.
“There has now been years of misery faced by passengers who simply wished to travel around London. Sadly the fiasco of dragged out weekend closures has also hit many businesses hard. From restaurants and West End theatres to the O2 Centre, the amount of lost weekend trade has been immense.
“It simply adds insult to injury to now finally discover that in addition to the cost already paid for by passengers and businesses there has been such a serious loss in revenue for Transport for London and such a huge bill for replacement buses.
“The upgrade on the Jubilee Line has been a case study in exactly how not to upgrade the tube. I just hope that the Mayor has learnt from these mistakes.
“One small step the Mayor could take to apologise for the Jubilee fiasco is to honour his promise to extend the running hours of this line at weekends. He promised he would do this for every tube line. At the very least he should ensure this now happens on the Jubilee Line. After so much pain for users of the Jubilee Line it is time for some gain.”
You can read more in the Evening Standard (here and here), on the Wharf website and at Mark Pack's blog.