Tube passengers lost 26 million hours to delays last year

The amount of time lost due to delays on the Tube has gone up
JulieJuliette @clarateddy

Tube passengers “lost” more than 26 million hours due to problems on the London Underground network in the past year.

Newly published Transport for London board papers reveal travellers spent increasing amounts of time stood waiting on platforms, stuck in tunnels because of technical failures or stranded outside shuttered stations on strike days.

In total, TfL said passengers suffered 26.4 million “lost customer hours” in the past 12 months, including strike days.

The time lost was calculated by measuring delays that lasted for two minutes or longer for all customers.

TfL blamed the lost hours on the programme for the Night Tube, due to begin on 19 August, station upgrade works and strikes earlier this year.

The number of “lost hours” increased from 22.7 million in 2015 and 24.2 million in 2014.

A further 1.2 million hours were lost by bus passengers standing waiting at stops, a slight increase on the previous year, which TfL said was caused by “increased traffic levels”.

TfL said that when strike action was not included in this year’s figures, the number of lost customer hours was 18.4 million, a slight decrease.

Last month, Miles Ashley, the Tube’s programme director for construction, said overcrowding was set to worsen as soaring population growth could overwhelm London Underground within 15 years.

Commuter Maria Panayiotou, 38, a production company manager from North Harrow, said: “I think the number of hours lost is astonishing, but in no way surprising, given the amount of delays I’ve experienced with strikes and recent chaos because of bad weather, plus planned overnight works on the Metropolitan Line.

“I’ve been late for work more often that I’ve been on time.

“It’s ridiculous that I pay over £200 a month for the privilege.”

Steve Griffiths, London Underground’s chief operating officer, said: “This increase was due to the impact of industrial action and, without that, underlying delays fell for the fifth consecutive year.

“We are running services more reliably than ever before, with reliability improved by 38 per cent over the last five years.

“We’re determined to improve that even further with investment in modern signalling, new trains and the rebuilding of key stations like Victoria, Bank and others.”

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