TfL ‘service performance’ complaints skyrocket in new figures
Commuter complaints to Transport for London (TfL) skyrocketed in 2019, with complaints about service performance increasing by 62 per cent in just two years.
TfL logged 110, 072 complaints from travellers in 2018-19, which was 19 per cent higher than two years earlier.
More than 25,000 of these were around issues of “service performance” – timetabling, delays and cancellations – which marked a 62 per cent spike in two years.
Complaints about TfL staff rose by 18.4 per cent in the same period.
The figures, released by City Hall, come after it was revealed in November that the four busiest Tube lines – Northern, Jubilee, Central and Victoria – run at over 100 per cent capacity at peak hour times.
It also comes as commuters are set for travel chaos over the weekend as drivers on the Bakerloo line will strike for 24 hours on Friday from midday and 24 hours on Sunday from midday.
The Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines will also be down over the entire weekend as TfL tests new signalling systems.
A spokesperson for mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the dramatic increases were due to a better complaints management system implemented in 2017.
“London has one of the best public transport systems in the world and the complaints reported represent a tiny fraction of the millions of journeys made every day,” they said.
However, Conservative London Assembly member Keith Prince said the new figures were a result of Khan’s “mismanagement of TfL finances”, which are “continuing to have a real and damaging impact on the quality of service on offer”.
He added: “All those millions of Londoners who are finding it increasingly difficult to get to and from work every day will hardly be shocked to see yet further evidence of our public transport system deteriorating under Sadiq Khan’s so-called leadership.”
TfL ran a budget deficit of £422m in 2018-19 and ran a £111m deficit in the first half of 2019-20.
The transport body’s total debt has now swelled to £11.2bn.
Many have been quick to blame Khan’s freeze on single journey fares since 2016 on TfL’s financial losses.
However, the mayor blames a £700m yearly reduction in government funding and mounting losses on bus journeys.
Independent mayoral candidate Rory Stewart said Khan had “failed to grip the details” in leading TfL.
He added: “He has made unsustainable promises on fares, shirked difficult decisions, put off long-term investments and has tried to prop up his ballooning debt by selling off public land – which we need for affordable housing.”