Andrew Dismore

Andrew Dismore AM, Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, challenged Mayor Johnson over his failings on the Northern Line during the London Assembly plenary meeting on 9^th October.

Mr Dismore said:

It was appalling that the Mayor could not even remember when he last travelled on the Northern Line, when I put the question to him. I think we need a “Spot the Boris” competition for Northern line passengers, but I doubt anyone would win.

The Northern Line upgrade is 2 years behind schedule and it will be 3 years before passengers see extra trains on the line. In the meantime, the service is not acceptable as the criticisms passengers have passed on to me, and which I put to the Mayor, have shown. If he had used the line recently, he would have heard the same from those who suffer the signal failures and other excuses for delays, such as:

• “There are far too many gaps in the service between trains causing crowds to build up plus the stupid reaction that tfl use to regulate the service again holding trains in the station for several minutes which does not make sense at all. …the line controllers could do a better job.
• “A couple of weeks ago the whole service was suspended between Edgware and Camden due to signal failure no help from staff on how to get from a to b, no updated announcements and even when it returned to normal service later in the day I found on my return home no Edgware trains on the CX branch.
• “if they suffer a signal problem, then god help us. You get thrown off the train to fend your way.
• “Recently between East Finchley and Finchley Central we were stuck in the train for about an hour in extremely hot conditions again as a result of signal failure.
• “it often seems to be closed at the weekend, and it’s erratic so it’s hard to remember to check. Also, the notices about what bits are being closed are so confusing that even a member of staff didn’t understand them the other week

I asked the Mayor for his response to these criticisms, but he had none It is unacceptable for the Mayor to rely on jam tomorrow and the long overdue upgrade. He needs to get his finger out and deal with the immediate problems to improve passengers’ journeys until the long overdue upgrade takes effect.