Mixed News for Tube Users in Chiswick

A decade to wait for Turnham Green stop on Piccadilly line

Chiswick commuters may face waiting until 2026 before the Piccadilly line will stop at Turnham Green, following the announcement of upgrades to the District, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.

London Underground have awarded a £760 million contract to global transport firm Thales for improvements to signalling on the four lines, covering 40% of the tube network. This is part of a larger £5.4 billion modernisation of these lines, which will include new tracks and larger platforms.

Turnham Green Tube Station

Trains should be more frequent, up from one every three minutes to every two minutes, increasing capacity by a half. District-line trains will also run more often through West London.

However, the work will finish in 2023, four years later than planned under the original £354 million contract – less than half the current cost – with Bombardier, that was terminated at a cost of £80 million to taxpayers. Mike Brown, commissioner of TfL, described how the original signs from other cities operating with Bombardier were ‘positive’ but TfL withdrew after problems later emerged.

Improvements to the Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines, including new trains and control systems, will take place after the modernisation of the Metropolitan line is complete in 2023.

In 2012 Mayor Boris Johnson stated that Piccadilly line trains will stop at Turnham Green only once it was upgraded, and so with the delays to this phase of the programme commuters could have to wait over a decade to use Turnham Green.

Ruth Cadbury, the recently-elected Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, has made a new Piccadilly line stop a priority, and Labour transport spokesman Val Shawcross said, “The Tube upgrade should have topped the mayor's list of priorities, but his abject failure to stay focused now means that paying passengers will be left to contend with yet another five years of over-stretched services.”

Nick Brown, Managing Director of London Underground, said, “Having successfully modernised three of the most heavily used lines on our network, we are ready to begin work to bring the next four lines into the modern era. This will transform the journeys of millions of our customers, significantly increasing service reliability and frequency.”

August 13, 2015