3 Discuss the proposition: ‘A complicated data need can be met successfully by using simple survey methods.’

Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) operates the Glasgow Underground. The circular rail service links the city centre with its southern and western inner suburbs through 15 stations. The service was opened in 1897 and is the third-oldest underground railway in the world.
It was fully modernised in 1979: it was at this time that its new, orange-liveried trains earned the service its local name of the Clockwork Orange. And since its reopening patronage has increased steadily such that today the system carries more than 14 million passengers per annum and is stretched to capacity at peak times.
In 1998, SPT set up a comprehensive review of every aspect of the operation of the railway, with a key commercial objective to spread the peak traffic and increase off-peak use. Early into this review it became clear that the success of the system meant that little or no effort had been spent in the recent past in trying to understand the marketplace within which the Underground was operating.