BRITISH Rail was told by the Government last night to keep improving
punctuality, cleanliness and safety, and to be ready for privatisation
and the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
Setting out BR's objectives for 1993-94 in a Commons written reply,
Transport Secretary John MacGregor said: ''The aim is to maintain a
safe, efficient railway supplying high standards of service to its
customers.''
He told BR to stick to the agreed standards of punctuality in the 1993
Passenger's Charter, which sets out targets for each line.
He welcomed safety improvements over previous years, but emphasised
''maintaining and further improving standards will continue to be an
objective of major importance''.
The previous set of objectives, which run out on March 31, covered a
three-year period. The new objectives will be for 12 months, to take
account of privatisation plans.
The next year should see the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the
setting up of Railtrack, which will responsible for maintaining the
network under the proposals.
The objectives Mr MacGregor set out were:
* On reliability and punctuality, to seek to achieve the agreed
Passenger's Charter targets for 1993
* To maintain objectives for train enquiry bureaux, with 95% of calls
answered within 30 seconds; and for ticket offices, with a maximum
queuing time of three minutes off-peak and five minutes peak
* To maintain objectives for carriage cleaning.
* To place greater emphasis on customer surveys as a means of
measuring customer satisfaction, with publication of their results
* On overcrowding, to work towards a ratio of passengers to seats of
not more than 135% on sliding-door trains and 110% on slam-door trains,
with no standing for longer than 20 minutes.
Labour's Transport spokesman Brian Wilson later protested against Mr
MacGregor's decision to make the announcement through a written reply.
He said: ''There is to be a 23% cut in grant to BR. There is to be the
lowest level of investment since nationalisation in 1948, yet the
statement of new objectives for BR is to be buried in the reply to a
planted written question.''
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