Tube only ran "good service" one day last year

It's rare that you will see "a good service is operating on all London Underground Lines" signs for a whole day (probably why this picture from @iamjamesward had over 14,000 views when it was posted on April Fool's day!). His April Fool wasn't so far from the truth.  Good service on all lines is so rare that it actually only happened once last year on the 11th May 2010.



Photo by @iamjamesward taken on 1st April 2010 
Under the Freedom of Information Act, The Standard learnt it was the only day there were no delays or suspensions on all lines. 

Caroline Pidgeon, formerly Chair of the London Assembly's Transport Committee, said it was "astonishing given the investment to date in the Tube, that all passengers only received a good service on one day".

Jo de Bank of London Travelwatch said: "People do understand the upgrade work but in the meantime Tube passengers are suffering worse services than they expect and that should be resolved." She echoed what I always say and try to do. "They should remember they are entitled to a refund if their journey is disrupted and claim it."

It's really easy to claim if your journey is delayed by more than 15 minutes under the Customer Charter. Yet only last week it was reported that only 330,000 of a potential 11 million Tube passengers claimed compensation for delays in 2010.

This year I've already made five claims and had a refund of the equivalent value of a single journey for each claim. I know that it's easy to forget, but if everyone made these claims more often TfL would really have to step up improving the service or they'd be losing a lot of money.

We often feel helpless about delays and vent our frustration on Twitter and our friends' ears. It would make more sense, and in the long run improve the system, if we spent those few minutes filling in a Customer Charter form. Since March 2010, there's even a couple of iPhone apps - Tube Refund & iRefund which mean you can claim as your delay is taking place.