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• Reference: 2003/0145
• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

The closure of the extremely busy Central Line for the best part of three months, though highly inconvenient, showed that London does not have to come to a halt if a key line is closed down. Do you now believe that TfL could get very much better value for money out of the PPP contracts if work to upgrade the Tube system (track, signalling, stations) were concentrated into periods where lines or sections of line were closed entirely, rather than being restricted to 12.30am 5.30am with all the inefficiencies of stop-start-stop that this entails? .

• Reference: 2003/0151
• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Do you agree that there should be 5 key, and customer `friendly', indicators that Londoners can use to judge the success that Transport for London may, or may not make in operating the Tube? .

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I hear what you are saying and I understand. You have three pieces of work: you must manage the contracts, manage the Tube running, and this third piece of work I am nagging you about. You do not want to raise expectations and you want to see that you do those first two pieces of work. I want to test you in two areas. The closure of the Central Line was one. I am looking at flexibility within the contract. You do agree there may be flexibility for negotiation within the contract, either along those lines or indeed along what...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I am not saying `rush', but you must understand that for three years I and others, including Bob Kiley, have said that PPP is not going to deliver for London. Therefore, while you are doing what you can with the PPP and with London Underground, I am asking for a commitment that you look for flexibility in the contract and will look for add ons, perhaps not in the first year but the work surely has to start now in looking for where you can deliver more for London than the Government has saddled us with.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I understand where you are coming from on that, but I have to say I thought the Government did a terrible job in negotiating the PPP. Do you think your skills will be better than the Government's?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

When the London Underground surveyed Tube users, they found that what really mattered to Londoners were things like: the squash factor, how overcrowded they were; the waiting factor, how long they had to wait for a train; the `Oh God I am going to be late because there has been a delay or a breakdown'; or `Am I going to die of heat in this tunnel?" Those are the major factors. My contention is that we need that to be recognisable. Do you accept the five factors I have put forward " or that others have put forward " that...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

That is very clever, but in discussions with Tube Lines they felt able to begin to draw up a comparator of what the output required by the PPP actually delivers in the terms the Assembly had put. I suppose what I am looking for from you is that there is a translation of the outputs in the PPP into terms that human beings travelling on the Tube will understand. The other part is that it is not just about the PPP. I would also like you to commit today to giving a benchmark and an estimate on improvement on those...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Sorry, I just distinguished between what the public wants and what the Assembly Transport Committee wants: to be able to measure you on your own performance within your own management skills and your performance on managing the PPP contract.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

People are not so worried about what is causing the breakdown. As a management issue, of course you want to know why there is a delay, waiting, or overcrowding but that is not what matters to people " according to the work we did. If you look at something like overcrowding on the Tube, London Underground actually wrote back to us at the Assembly to say their standards are higher: it is 0.5 metres per person. If you unpack that, it is very weasely. They take from both ends of the line; they are not looking at the squashed bit...