• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I think you are going some way to recovering on the Uxbridge Road case and I think the sheer horror at TfL of discovering quite how badly it was being received has helped to shake up the organisation. I think there is some honesty within TfL about that, but there is still a concern that this is not transferring across the organisation as a whole. For example, the culture in which you negotiate contracts " detail that cannot be seen by the wider public, the culture by which you propose new bus routes which then achieve massive opposition that defeats...

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I know you recognise accessibility is an issue not only for people with mobility problems, important though that is. Can you tell me what plans TfL has to make improvements in accessibility for those who have sight or hearing impairments?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

In giving paramount importance to accessibility in the existing network, will you continually bear in mind that for very many Londoners the existing network are over ground rail stations? In that context, would you agree that it is ludicrous to have a situation such as the one my constituents face in Bromley South, where disabled people can park their cars conveniently outside the station but have no means of then getting down on to the platform? What steps are TfL and the Mayor taking to ensure those Londoners, like those constituents I met on Monday, who use the over?ground network...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Thank you for that answer. I have a couple of points related to my question. Firstly, I am glad you recognise this is an issue that is not going to go away and that it absolutely should be high on the agenda now, primarily because 17% of the working age population in London " your customers " have registered themselves as long?term disabled. It is not like we are talking about a minority issue here. You talked about the PPP envelope, which is something that was put to me recently by someone born with cerebral palsy. He got over that...

• 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...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Moving on from that, it is the perception and how that relates to your indicators. You have already indicated there is a little bit of a discrepancy there. For example, the public is not very comfortable in terms of the perceived safety of Underground stations. If you look at the statistics, it does not look so bad. Where are you with that? How do you think we can make the perception of safety on the Underground work?

• 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

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

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...