Mind the Gap – between what Londoners want and what Londoners get

Mind the Gap PDF Mind the Gap RTF

This report was published just after the Chancery Lane derailment and within days of the Mayor of London’s announcement that he expects to take over the running of the Tube after resolving his dispute with the Government over the PPP.

Londoners will agree with the Mayor when he says that this city deserves a world-class Underground system. Tube passengers, who between them make one billion journeys a year, know that there is a huge gap between today’s Tube and a world-class system. To achieve vital improvements to the system, targets need to exist that are understandable to the public and reflect their own priorities. We believe that in consultation with the London Assembly, TfL should now produce a set of targets that drive performance on the Underground to deliver the world class Tube system Londoners deserve. This report aims to contribute to this target setting for the Tube – it compares London’s underground system with similar urban systems around the world and comes to a view on the standards of service which relate to:

• Improving train frequencies
• Reducing overcrowding on the Underground
• Reducing passenger journey delays
• Improving safety and security for Underground users
• Providing a cleaner and more pleasant travelling environment.

This is what Londoners should expect from a 21st century metro system.

Note: The Committee commissioned National Economic Research Associates (NERA) to assist with technical aspects of the investigation and conduct a survey of other comparable metro systems. NERA’s extensive technical report has been published to accompany this report and we make reference to this throughout. NERA also produced a Technical Note to explain the calculation of improvements to the reliability of the Tube. NERA Performance Targets PDF NERA Performance Targets RTF NERA Report PDF NERA Report RTF