Sir Sadiq Khan has made a grovelling public apology to thousands of passengers who were caught in chaos on the District line during the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
The London mayor revealed that reliability on the Tube line – a crucial link to Wimbledon, including an estimated 14,000 fans a day who use Southfields station – had plummeted to the worst performance in more than a decade.
Fans faced lengthy delays and were forced to cram onto tightly packed Tube carriages during the hot weather as a range of issues plagued the line last week.
Sir Sadiq, who chairs the Transport for London board, said he was “extremely frustrated” with the service offered and admitted that such a “horrendous experience” would deter fans from relying on public transport in future.
He told Mayor’s Question Time on Friday: “I am extremely frustrated by the recent disruption on the District line, which has delivered a level of service well below TfL’s standards.
“I want to apologise to Londoners and visitors to our city who have faced disruption.
“You can imagine, if you are a visitor to London, if you are doing the right thing by using public transport, and you have had a horrendous experience on the District line, the impression you could be left with.”
He said reliability on the District line was normally above 90 per cent – as measured in the amount of planned train kilometres that were achieved - but had plummeted to 69 per cent last week, during the first week of the tournament.
“This was not good enough,” Sir Sadiq said.
Over the last decade, reliability on the line had been above 90 per cent during the championships except in two years, when it fell to 87 per cent, the mayor added.
“Unfortunately this year, a series of distinct infrastructure failures, operational issues and some events outside of TfL’s control have impacted performance,” he said.
“To be clear, some of the issues are the responsibility of Network Rail. TfL collaborates closely with Network Rail to operate the District line.
“On the line’s Wimbledon branch, south of Putney Bridge station, it is Network Rail which is responsible for power, signalling operation and the coordination of response to TfL’s asset failures.
“In response to these issues, TfL’s chief operating officer [Claire Mann] has met with Network Rail to discuss the ongoing issues and how to resolve them.
“My deputy mayor for transport [Seb Dance] has also directly raised concerns with Network Rail and I have discussed this with the Secretary of State for Transport [Heidi Alexander].
“TfL is also reviewing its own response and looking to use the lessons learned to improve the District line’s performance long-term and support the championships into the future.”
Sir Sadiq, a keen amateur tennis player, is normally invited by the All England Club each year to be a guest in the royal box with his wife Saadiya.
He has not yet been spotted attending the current tournament but a visit is thought to be likely before it ends on Sunday.
Keith Prince, transport spokesman for the City Hall Conservatives, described the mayor’s comments as a “very humble apology” and added: “It’s unfortunate it happened during Wimbledon.”
The mayor said Network Rail “weren’t quick enough” to respond to problems with the line’s infrastructure.
He said TfL executives had met Wimbledon chiefs already, including Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club – and planned to have another meeting once the tournament ended.
The All England Club plans to demand investment in the District line.
A quarter of planned District line services were unable to run to the championships on the first two days of the tournament, following signal failures and a small fire on the track at Southfields, Network Rail said.
There was also a track circuit failure on Monday July 7, resulting in no Tube service between Parsons Green and Wimbledon - forcing fans to take an alternative route.
Wimbledon MP Paul Kohler described the disruption as “a huge embarrassment in the middle of the championships, during one of the Crown Jewels of British sport”.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “We’re sorry to any District line passengers whose journeys have been affected by recent signalling issues on infrastructure shared between Network Rail and London Underground.
“Over the course of the Wimbledon Championships, we experienced three separate track circuit failures, which are critical to the signalling system as they tell signallers where trains are on the network.
“A failure causes signals to default to red for safety, which reduces the number of trains we can run through the affected area. In addition, staff had to respond to a small fire on the track that led to a brief suspension of services.
"Engineers are continuing to investigate the root causes of these track circuit failures, and we have bolstered our response capability to help manage any further issues.
“The location of this particular fault means that repairing it is more complex, but we are doing everything we can to minimise disruption, with extra staff on hand for finals weekend at Wimbledon. We’d like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding.”
