A2.1 | Availability was uneven in the first year, with mixed performance against contractual benchmarks

The PPPs began in early 2003. But between September 1999 and April 2003 (December 2002 for JNP Infraco), there was a period of "shadow running" of the PPPs (see boxed text). Availability performance during shadow running was highly volatile, above and below benchmark. This was caused largely by the introduction of new trains (Northern Line) and track (Jubilee Line), which improved availability after a bedding in period (the "j-curve" effect - an initial drop in reliability due to integration problems, followed by a steady improvement as these issues are resolved); a high number of Temporary Speed Restrictions, which were instituted for safety reasons.

Performance remained uneven in the first year of the PPPs, above and below benchmark. As Figure 3 shows, between April 2003 and March 2004, total agreed Lost Customer Hours were 16.97 million, which is better than the Department's target - derived from the sum of the benchmark values in the contracts - of 18.62 million. While the Infracos collectively met the Department's target for Lost Customer Hours, two of the three Infracos performed slightly worse than overall benchmark and a significant amount of service disruption was still to be agreed as at mid-May 2004 (see Section A4.3). Although some bedding-in is to be expected, TfL is of the view that this level of performance is disappointing. Performance data on individual lines is set out at Appendix 3, and shows that volatility was particularly pronounced for Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. When the investment backlog is further reduced, the parties expect availability scores to improve, with less fluctuation, and underlying asset failure rates (which LUL monitors, but which are not part of the contractual targets) to improve.