Launching the London Assembly Transport Committee's report into the performance of the Tube - which highlighted a 20% increase in delays over the last year - Caroline Pidgeon commented:
Passengers spent an extra six-and-a-half million hours on the Tube in 2010/11 because of the increased number of delays, this is clearly unacceptable and a drag on London’s economy.
We know delays on the Underground have fallen overall since 2003, but TfL must ensure that last year’s 20 per cent dip in performance is a blip - not a disturbing sign of things to come.
There is also no room for complacency when it comes to delivering value for money on Tube maintenance and upgrades. London is a world class city and it has a right to expect a standard of efficiency from TfL that compares favourably to other metro systems across the globe.
The "State Of The Underground Report" found that despite a trend of improvement going back to 2003, the period from August 2010 to January 2011 was the longest sustained period of poor performance since the beginning of the upgrade programme.
Around half the increase in lost passenger hours compared to the previous year was due to industrial action, with equipment failure on the Jubilee, Victoria, District and Metropolitan lines also causing wide disruption.
You can read the full report - and watch a video summarising it - on the London Assembly website here.
You can also read media coverage:
- on the BBC website
- in the Evening Standard
- in the Wimbledon Guardian
- on the Mayorwatch blog
- in the Metro