Today, via a Transport for London press release, we learn that of 782 Thames Cable Car passengers interviewed, an undisclosed number gave it “a score of 93 out of a possible 100 in a recent customer satisfaction survey.”
The exact opening line of the statement reads:
“Customer satisfaction with the Emirates Air Line is high with passengers giving it a score of 93 out of a possible 100 in a recent customer satisfaction survey.”
But the release doesn’t reveal how many passengers scored the tourist attraction/integral part of the capital’s transport network 93 out of a possible 100, whether this is an average score or what the lowest or highest scores were.
It is a characteristically TfL approach to statistics.
As for the claim that the survey was “recent”, the score is derived from interviews carried out between September 2012 and January 2013.
Is it possible to truthfully describe an interview carried out six months ago as “recent” ? TfL evidently think so.
The timing of this partial information release is interesting because I have an FOI due for answer by April 11th requesting:
a ) the number of customer satisfaction, popularity and brand benchmarking surveys, opinion polls and research carried out or commissioned by TfL in relation to the Thames Cable Car since construction began
b) Copies of all customer satisfaction, popularity and brand benchmarking surveys, opinion polls and research carried out or commissioned by TfL in relation to the Thames Cable Car since construction began
c) the costs of each survey, opinion poll and report covered by a) and b) above
Assuming TfL get somewhere close to meeting the deadline, we should soon be able to drill down into the fine detail and see exactly what Londoners and tourists really think about the cable car.