• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

What are your objectives in terms of staffing of stations? Do you have a core figure that you feel should ensure that, however remote it is in terms of the London Underground empire, there will always be staff on duty and available to passengers should they want reassurance or information?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Thank you for that. The information I have, and it may be out of date, is that only 27 Tube stations had achieved the Safer Station status. I accept your point that this may be an expensive process, so what alternatives would you put in place to establish the extent to which the users of stations feel they are safe and secure? A survey I conducted of users in my constituency earlier this year found that 40% felt their station was unsafe. They also had concerns about cleanliness and the lack of adequate information there. What steps would you see...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Can I have your assurance that the focus of this, including the works on CCTV and so on, will not simply be about Zone 1, the most used stations, and the one where all the tourists go. In the area I represent, and I know there will be colleagues around the table for whom it is the same, that it is the most suburban, perhaps less busy, stations in which people feel the most insecure. Will efforts be targeted outside the central zone?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

Some stations, although they may not be in a critical condition, are not very good; for instance, Stockwell in South London is not due for a makeover until 2008. They may not be the worst on the list, but nonetheless they are a very poor environment. We have a significant amount of antisocial behaviour and nuisance around those stations, which I think is partially conditioned by the fact that the station is not in a good state and does not feel like a secure environment, as Toby mentioned. Is there any prospect for interim work to be done to give...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I should say `welcome'; I think every Londoner would want you to be successful in your job. I think you should understand that we all wish you well in your post. I appreciate that Brixton, which is the sixth busiest station in London, is being done and that Kennington is being done. Are you saying you are satisfied with the criteria that Tube Lines have applied in terms of determining their priorities? If I could make a point that I think parallels something that Toby was saying: because there are fewer stations in South London, in my view they have...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

And where they do not exist?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

I wanted to ask Tim O'Toole: I know you are not yet hands on at London Underground. When you are, you will experience the difficulty in working with overland rail, where there are interchanges which have combined stations. Do you have any thoughts yet about whether you will be revisiting the escalator policy at those interchanges, where lifts are proposed for new stations but often escalators are not? They are expensive, but they are also a very valuable part of access to local people " not just people with mobility problems, but to have them in addition to lifts is...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 June 2003

That commitment on graffiti is certainly welcome. Given that much of the Underground system is under the very tight operational control of the staff, it ought to be possible so we welcome that. I wanted to go back to the point on South London, because it is certainly true that the perception in South London is that they are being discriminated against, although I take your point about previous works. I am thinking here about the proposals for trams in South London. Would you see it as part of your responsibility to talk to your colleagues in the rest of...

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

To take a slightly different tangent, you say you have had limited time to prepare yourself for taking on the Tube, which I think we all understand. Can you explain, or can Bob explain, why you refused to take the Chair of the London Underground in the period leading to transfer, as I believe the Government was offering you?