Anger Over Further Chiswick Park Footbridge Delay

Commuter frustration at Gunnersbury station as project fails to make progress

The much delayed project to build a footbridge between Chiswick Business Park and Chiswick Park tube station is not yet underway, a year after a planning application was submitted to Hounslow Council.

Work on the bridge has not yet started because of protracted negotiations between the Council and the rail companies. It has been suggested that part of the reason for the delay is the refusal of Network Rail to schedule track closures to allow the bridge to be installed.

The footbridge will extend from Chiswick Business Park to Chiswick Park Station, allowing business park employees quick access to the station and taking the pressure off Gunnersbury tube station.

A typical scene of overcrowding at Gunnersbury

Local residents and commuters at Gunnersbury tube have become increasingly disgruntled at platform overcrowding and have posted several messages on our forum. One said there was "nearly a riot" one morning at 8.35 as people trying to catch a train to London were prevented from entering the station for 'safety reasons' because of crowds on the platform getting off a Richmond-bound train. Many people missed their train.

Another said " Despite two years of Twitter activity, completion of their web site forms and the intervention of Ruth Cadbury MP it seems that National Rail couldn't give a damn."

A planning application submitted last year for the scheme was approved at a Planning Committee meeting of Hounslow Council. This was the second application approved as the first had expired. The owners of the development, had earlier this year been able to agree a new plan for the maintenance of the bridge with Hounslow Council after years of delays.

However, developers were not able to start construction on the much needed footbridge without permission from Network Rail and other land owners, such as Transport for London.

A reliable source has told Chiswickw4.com that the delay caused because of negotiations between Hounslow Council and the rail companies is being resolved. Plans are also being agreed for platform reconfiguration at Gunnersbury, the source said. However, no date for the start of work on the project has been agreed.

For years, there have been growing concerns that Gunnersbury station at the south of the development would be unable to cope with the increased number of passengers. When Chiswick Business Park is fully occupied there will be 12,000 people working at the complex. The original agreement was for the bridge to be completed in time for full occupancy - but several companies have signed up for Building Seven without the bridge even being started.

The footbridge will mean ease of access for commuters from the northern end of the business park, to Colonial Drive.

Cllr Peter Thompson who chairs the Gunnersbury Station Action Team commented, “The Gunnersbury Station Action Team – a partnership of local residents, business owners, TFL, Network Rail and Hounslow Council – was set up by Mary Macleod because we were all fed up with the lack of progress being made to improve Gunnersbury Station.  We have been working for the past few years so that we can finally have a station fit for purpose here in Chiswick.  I am painfully aware that for a variety of reasons the timescale for the installation of the bridge linking the Business Park and Chiswick Park Station has repeatedly slipped.  However funding for the bridge (£4m) is now with the Council and we are hoping that the final legal agreements will be signed any day now.  It should be in place and open by the end of 2017."

"There are a number of other plans in the pipeline which ought to improve safety around the station. We have finally got agreement to install countdown indicators on the crossing outside the station.  The Council has funded work to see how the station itself can be improved by measures such as moving the waiting room down the platform etc.  We are hoping to install a longer bus stop outside the old BSI building and move the incoming 27 bus stop in the Business Park which would make this route more useful for workers and residents.

"Gunnersbury Station is going to become more and more congested and overcrowded as the Business Park fills up, new homes are built and other businesses set up in the area.  It is a real shame that transport improvements weren't given a much higher priority years ago and that we are now having to play catch-up." 

The images below are from earlier documentation associated with the project.

October 22, 2016