London Underground

Harry Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 10 March 2003, Official Report, column 47W, on London Underground, if he will provide the whole year figures for 2002–03. [115149]

Mr. Jamieson
This is an operational matter for London Underground who have provided the information set out in the following table. -----------------------------
|Line                       |
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|Bakerloo                   |
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|Central                    |
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|Circle/Hammersmith and City|
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|District                   |
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|East London                |
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|Jubilee                    |
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|Metropolitan               |
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|Northern                   |
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|Piccadilly                 |
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|Waterloo and City          |
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|Victoria                   |
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|Total                      |
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Mr. Hancock
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he estimates passengers will experience improvements in (a) reliability and (b) comfort under the PPP contracts for the London Underground. [115587]

Mr. Jamieson
Tube Lines have announced that, for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, within the first 12 months of the contract they will be cutting delays by nearly 10 per cent., saving passengers some 430,000 hours. They have also improved the cleaning regime implementing deep cleans of trains and stations much more frequently than before. At the same time they are beginning the long-term work to upgrade the lines and increase capacity, including additional rolling stock for the Jubilee Line to increase train lengths from 6 to 7 cars, and awarding a contract for new signalling systems for the Jubilee and Northern Lines to allow a substantial increase in the service capability on these lines. These new signalling systems should be in place by 2009 and 2011 respectively.For the lines being maintained and modernised by Metronet, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) on 8 May 2003,

Official Report, column 830W.