Burst mains flooding Tube caused thousands of lost hours to passengers

Nearly half-a-million passenger hours were lost on the London Underground because of a massive water mains burst which flooded the Central Line in east London, latest figures reveal.

Delays in June would have been 284,000 hours lower than the previous month—but for the fractured mains at Stratford which deluged the line on June 6, according to Transport for London’s Tube performance figures out today.

The broken mains caused millions of litres to pour onto the rail system and resulted in 408,000 lost hours to passengers through train delays.

Top level meetings have taken place since then between the Mayor of London and Thames Water which has agreed to pay TfL compensation for the incident.

Emergency protocols are now set out should such a situation be repeated.

The Underground’s managing director Mike Brown said: “The ongoing work we’re undertaking to respond more quickly to problems meant we were able to maintain performance during the Olympics, despite an extra million journeys made on the busiest days.”

Meanwhile, the long-term trend showed best improved reliability on the Underground overall, with passenger demand continuing at record levels. The ‘customer satisfaction’ improved to the highest level since the independent quarterly survey began in its current form in 1990.