APPENDIX 32
Memorandum submitted by London Transport
1. INTRODUCTION
London Transport (LT) last reported to the Culture,
Media and Sport Committee in October 1999.
At that time we outlined our commitment to provide
fast and efficient public transport links to the Dome at North
Greenwich throughout the Millennial year in support of a minimum
car use policy.
Since October many significant milestones have
been attained, therefore we welcome the opportunity to update
the Committee on the current status of our achievements.
2. THE JUBILEE
LINE
2.1 Opening timetable and Operational issues
Since last reporting to the Committee in October,
the Jubilee Line commenced full passenger service running from
Stanmore to Stratford. On 20 November through services commenced
and services to Charing Cross withdrawn. The Minister for London,
Keith Hill, opened Westminster Station on 22 December prior to
the New Year's celebrations and special services to the Dome.
In addition to normal services, on New Year's
Eve the Jubilee Line operated a shuttle service to the Dome from
Stratford. The special service from Westminster to North Greenwich
ran smoothly given the difficulty of integrating it into a very
intensive New Year's Eve timetable.
North Greenwich Station (for the Dome) is coping
well with the average daily 17,000 Dome visitors. Working closely
with the NMEC, Underground and Bus staff are safely managing crowd
numbers and offering a high degree of customer service. Numbers
through the gateline at the station have increased steadily since
the beginning of the year to 876,000 in the month of April.
A recent LT "Mystery Shopper" survey
indicates improved satisfaction with the new Jubilee Line service
along with the smarter appearance of staff in their new uniforms.
JLE stations have been put forward for a host
of awards to date receiving the following acclaim: The Railway
Industry Innovation Award for 2000.
RIBA Civic and Community Architecture Award
for Stratford and North Greenwich Stations.
Civic Trust Award for the oustanding scheme
of the year and RIBA Architecture Awards (Regional and National)
for Stratford Market Depot.
2.2 Reliability
Performance of the Jubilee Line train service
has been improving steadily since through running began in November.
The reducing number of delays and improved speed of rectification
have lead to increased reliability with the average number of
trains in peak service now above the 97 per cent target. Modifications
to the train software planned for the beginning of June will lead
to a further reduction in delays due to platform edge doors faults.
The timetabled move to 24 trains per hour in
the peak in May has lead to yet further increases in services
for Dome visitors.
Since full time opening the reliability of escalators,
ticket gates and ticket machines have been meeting performance
targets. Some of the older escalators at London Bridge and Waterloo
have recently been taken out of service with driveshaft problems
as part of a network overhaul.
Some lifts for mobility impaired customers are
still causing concern whilst the contractor upgrades the communication
system within the lift cars. The moving walkways (Travalators)
at Waterloo, whilst meeting performance targets, are experiencing
some reliability problems.
2.3 Contingency Planning
Robust contingency plans were in place by 1
January 2000 and have been used successfully to mitigate the impact
of disruption to Jubilee Line services. There have been only a
small number of occasions when Dome visitors have been significantly
inconvenienced.
Initially the size of the contingency fleet
was selected to meet the needs of the first three months when
NMEC forecast lower demand and planned to operate single session
days.
To met the anticipated increase in Dome demand
and following a review of the first three months of operations,
the contingency bus fleet has been increased and now operates
in line with extended Dome opening hours.
All of the operators involved in the contingency
plans have worked and continue to work well together to ensure
that contingency services operate with the minimum of inconvenience
to Dome visitors. This collaborative effort has demonstrated the
effectiveness of the contingency plans for command and control,
interchange operation, and communication strategies.
3. STATISTICS
North Greenwich Jubilee Line station was used
during the first 18 weeks of Y2000: by a daily average of about
15,000 passengers each way. Just over 9,000 each way were Dome
patrons (the others were "sightseers" outside the Dome
and commuters) giving the Jubilee Line 54 per cent of 17,000 Dome
patrons per average day.
The station has so far handled a maximum daily
flow of 24,500 passengers each way and a maximum hourly flow of
over 6,000 each way.
Coach modal share is significantly higher than
forecast: 18 per cent of paying patrons come by coach compared
with 80-85 per cent of those on free educational visits. Combined
these give an average 24 per cent coach share of all Dome visits
made so far. The actual number of coaches on any given day varies
a lot, according to whether or not free educational visits are
taking place: they account for about 1 in 10 Dome visitors to
date.
Park and ride at the official NMEC car parks
is significantly lower than forecast. This is only partly explained
by NMEC's implementation of fewer sites than assumed when the
forecasts were made.
River Services' modal share was always expected
to be significantly higher during the summer months, but, if anything,
its proportion declined slightly between January and April.
The combined "bus and Millennium Transit"
share and that of "other" modes (including taxi, cycles,
pedestrians and orange badge-holders) are in line with forecasts.
Ninety-one per cent of visitors interviewed
during April had found the Dome easy to get to (source: NMEC MORI
April poll press release).
4. BUS SERVICES
4.1 Bus Services to North Greenwich bus interchange
The transport interchange at North Greenwich
is served by five bus services. These are:
— Route 108 (Lewisham—Blackheath—North
Greenwich—Poplar—Bow—Stratford).
— Route 161 (North Greenwich—Woolwich—Eltham—Mottingham—Chislehurst).
— Route 188 (North Greenwich—Greenwich—Surrey
Quays—Canada Water—Bermondsey—Elephant—Waterloo—Russell
Square).
— Route 422 (North Greenwich—Blackheath—Charlton—Woolwich—Plumstead—Bexleyheath).
— Route 472 (North Greenwich—Woolwich—Plumstead—Thamesmead).
All these routes now use fully accessible, low
floor buses.
In addition to these, the two Millennium Transit
services commenced on 1 January 2000. Route M1 between North Greenwich
and Charlton Station for interchange with Connex South East services
is proving popular with local commuters using the Jubilee Line
as well as Dome patrons. Route M2 from North Greenwich to Greenwich
station and town centre where interchange to Connex South East
and Docklands Light Railway services is available, is proving
popular for Dome patrons exploring Historic Greenwich following
a day at the Dome.
Following requests from passengers and the London
Borough of Greenwich Route M2 has served additional stops at Greenwich
District Hospital and town centre since February.
4.2 Millennium Transit Guideway
It was intended that Route M1 would use an electronic
guidance system along a dedicated guideway for part of its journey,
the first time such technology will be used in passenger service.
Testing and commissioning of this experimental system is ongoing.
In the meantime, the route operates along conventional roads throughout
its length to North Greenwich without inconveniencing passengers.
Comprehensive publicity of the Millennium Transit
services supporting the "How to get to the Dome leaflet"
has been produced for both local residents and Dome patrons alike.
The routes have special "stop specific" timetables and
on bus publicity has been produced, giving details of all the
bus routes that run to North Greenwich.
5. RIVER SERVICES
On 1 January 2000, the two new Millenium river
services commenced operation. The first, the Millennium Express,
running between Waterloo and Blackfriars Millennium Piers and
Queen Elizabeth II Pier (for the Dome), is operated by City cruises
using four brand new 500-passenger capacity Riverliners. Also
on this day, White Horse Fast Ferries started operating the Greenwich
Shuttle between historic Greenwich and Queen Elizabeth II Pier.
The services will continue to run throughout 2000.
The newly built Blackfriars Millennium Pier
also opened on 1 January and is currently served by the Millennium
Express and Central London Fast Ferry services. The re-building
of Westminster Pier is now scheduled for completion by the end
of June 2000.
Signage at piers is key to successful integration
of services and installation is near completion at Embankment,
Festival, Blackfriars, Bankside and Greenwich piers with work
having commenced at Tower and Waterloo Millennium piers. London
Transport is undertaking a thorough review of signage to and from
the piers and other transport interchanges. Riverboat connections
are now included on the Tube Map and all line diagrams within
the Tube carriages have been updated to show riverboat connections.
The Bakerloo Line will be the first to include
automated announcements with appropriate pier information.
March saw the launch of the new Spring/Summer
river services timetable booklet and River Map. This is backed
up by a poster campaign throughout the Tube and bus networks during
May and June entitled "See London from a Different Point
of View". During July, the Thames will feature as part of
the popular LT "Simply . . ." series of leaflets with
a version entitled, "Simply River". Both campaigns are
aimed at raising awareness of the range of riverboat services
for business and leisure purposes during the summer period.
6. TICKETING
ARRANGEMENTS
Sales of the Millennium London Transport Card
(MLTC) have been encouraging with over 120,000 tickets sold to
date through LT outlets. Coupled with the NMEC call centre promotion
of public transport and sales of the MLTC we forecast over 0.5
million tickets could be sold by the end of the year. The breakdown
of ticket sales to date shows London Underground stations at the
extremities of lines (Stanmore, Amersham and Cockfosters) with
the greatest ticket sales, indicating an understanding of the
"no car message" and use of public transport for the
final leg of the journey.
7. TRAVEL INFORMATION
AND MARKETING
The "How to get to the Dome" by public
transport leaflet has proved very successful with visitors to
the Dome, currently distributed through LT channels at a pick-up
rate of 25,000 per week. The leaflet has recently been updated
to reflect changes to the services and Dome operating times with
a further 1.2 million copies printed.
LT has successfully worked in partnership with
ATOC and NMEC to ensure consistency of travel information and
recommended routes across London in all publications to Dome visitors.
The Dome wayfinding signage is in place at all
key interchanges assisting the movement of Dome visitors easily
across the system. LT have undertaken joint advertising campaigns
with NMEC to promote awareness of the Dome and getting there using
the MLTC. LT is also promoting how to get to the Dome through
all of its internally produced advertising and information, including
overseas leaflets, door drops of "London Direct" to
750,000 London residents and through the Metro newspaper.
8. CONCLUSION
The Dome at Greenwich has been the focus of
much media scrutiny in the first four months of the new Millennium.
Market research undertaken by NMEC shows a high visitor satisfaction
with the Dome and also with travel to the Dome. The partnerships
adopted by LT to ensure that transport to the Dome is of the highest
quality demonstrate LT's commitment to making the Millennium in
London a success.
However, continued efforts are necessary to
ensure that travel to the Dome in the summer months, when NMEC
predicts higher usage, is the best that LT can deliver. It is
also necessary to maintain the partnership approach already established
to ensure the quality of information, ticketing, signage and contingency
services continues to be delivered in an efficient and integrated
manner.
May 2000
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