£1m bill for 'fake passengers' to tell Tube chiefs about service

TUBE bosses today came under fire for spending more than £1million hiring "fake" passengers to monitor the service.

Critics called on London Underground to ask genuine commuters instead of "mystery shoppers".

The company spent £933,000 in 2009/10 hiring people to report on train service, station "ambience" and knowledge and helpfulness of staff.

Four years ago, LU spent £384,000 on the scheme. Val Shawcross, Labour's transport spokeswoman for the London Assembly, called the spending excessive. "All they need to do to understand what is going wrong with the Tube is to ask real passengers." The TaxPayers' Alliance said: "These costs are borne by taxpayers and passengers. It's absurd to pay mystery shoppers when LU could be listening to real customers with real problems."

LU said the views of genuine passengers were taken alongside those of the mystery shoppers - from GfK, one of the world's largest market research companies - of whom more would be hired in the future.

"We're working further to improve the quality and cleanliness of services and stations, the experience of our disabled customers, as well as the information provided to Londoners. Transport for London is delivering more than £5billion in savings and efficiencies now and in future years. The cost of such surveys is a very small fraction of TfL's £9billion annual budget, and they are an important part in ensuring we deliver the best possible value for fare payers' and taxpayers' money."

Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA transport union, said LU should use the money "on keeping stations staffed all the time instead of axing jobs".