Mill Brook Park resident Jay Hostan noted down when trains arrived at at Mill Hill East Station during peak hours on weekdays from Friday, May 9 to Monday, June 2.
Having lived in the area for around four years, he said he sometimes waited up to 40 minutes for a tube to arrive and the service had started to “degrade”.
“I wanted to trigger some change,” Jay said. “Whenever we need to go into the city, sometimes we have to wait there for 25 minutes, 30 minutes, sometimes 40 minutes, and if you have to do it twice a day then you are wasting a fair amount of time from your day and you cannot really plan for it.”
Hendon MP David Pinto-Duschinsky said he had lobbied Transport for London (TfL) to “demand improvement” while Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson said residents “deserve better”.
According to Mr Hostan’s data, over the 15-day period, 41 of the 525 scheduled departures were “no shows”.
Of these, 33 were during the morning rush hour and the longest gap between tubes was on Friday 2nd, when the 8.12am and 8.26am trains were both cancelled, leaving people waiting 41minutes for the next train.
In response, a TfL spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the current dissatisfaction with service levels on the Mill Hill East branch of the Northern Line and are working hard to improve services for customers.
“We will continue active discussions with local elected representatives and other key stakeholders and will be hosting sessions in the coming weeks at the local stations to address the concerns of customers.”
According to TfL the Northern Line should run trains every eight to 15 minutes on the Mill Hill East branch.
Jay highlighted the area had become more developed in the last few years and yet trains were running “less frequently”. He said apps like Citymapper or TfL’s online website were not helpful, as they estimated arrival times, while the board on the platform used GPS which was more accurate.
“We’d like to get proper information,” Jay said. “That’s the main thing, they could fix the data on the apps and the website, so even if there is no train people walking to the station could plan around it.
“I have a family, I would rather spend an extra hour with my two-year-old than calculate the extra time I need to go to the tube station just to make sure I can catch a train.”
Pinto-Duschinsky said: “Passengers who rely on Mill Hill East have been let down by a poor tube service for far too long. This data bears out the experience of so many of my constituents: endless delays and gaps in service are inconveniencing local residents every day.
“It cannot continue. I have been lobbying TfL on this for some time to demand improvement, and I will continue to press them to ensure they deliver a service that is up to scratch.”
Tomlinson added: “Residents using Mill Hill East station deserve better. The delays, no shows, and huge gaps in services during peak times are unacceptable, and I have been supporting residents who have gathered this data.
“Anne Clarke, the London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, and I have raised this with senior staff at TfL repeatedly, and I have been assured they are investigating what changes and improvements can be made. I will not stop until improvements have been secured.”
Jay posted his findings to LinkedIn where they have received nearly 80 comments to date. One resident, Graham White, said he was “affected” daily by the poor service at the tube stop.
Graham said: “I work shifts and due to the nature of my job a reliable transport network is crucial. At its worst it’s taken me 90 minutes to get from W1 to my front door, a journey that should be an average of 50 minutes, and waits of up to half an hour to leave Mill Hill East are far too common.”
