With a commitment from TfL to look into piloting earlier evening stops
Local residents, councillors, council staff and prospective MPs met with Transport for London staff last Friday at City Hall to push for the Piccadilly Line to stop more frequently at Turnham Green underground station.
In the meeting, London Underground made a commitment to look into piloting an earlier evening stop at Turnham Green tube station for the Piccadilly line, to assess the viability of making this permanent. Currently the Piccadilly line stops at the station from 10.30pm onwards.
There are contractual and technical issues at present with an all day stop at the station but new signalling works are due to take place at Turnham Green by 2014 and a decision will be made before this date if a permanent stop can be factored into the timetable.
Prospective parliamentary candidate Mary Macleod commented, “This is a major step forward. It would make a real difference to Chiswick residents if they were able to get back from work earlier in the evening and spend more time at home with their families. This is about improving their quality of life on a daily basis.
Ideally I would like to see a permanent all day stop at Turnham Green because there are approx 5.9m (includes entries and exits) passengers who use this station throughout the year and have quite long waiting times compared to other stations.
“Chiswick is a tightly packed residential community with a vibrant local community and has become a destination area for those who want good shops and great restaurants in a lovely part of London. Better transport links here would encourage car users to switch to public transport and we would have a greener London.
The Turnham Green residents group, Hounslow Council and I will work with TfL and London Underground, to see if incremental improvements can be made in advance of the signal works and then fight for a permanent stop for when signal works are complete.”
Chiswick resident Richard Jennings said, “While the permanent solution is some years away, I'm encouraged that London Underground have agreed to look seriously at extending the times at which stopping at Turnham Green is currently scheduled. In particular, we believe that stopping earlier in the evenings than the present 22:30 and stopping until mid-morning at weekends are both feasible without any change to the current signalling system.”
Fellow resident Ollie Dewis, added “Our Campaign Group feel that discussions with London Underground have moved forward very positively. There is still much work and research to be done and factors such as the Turnham Green signalling works (to be completed by 2014) and Crossrail have to considered during this process, but each step moves us closer to turning a long held dream for a permanent Piccadilly Line stop at Turnham Green into a reality"
Present at the meeting were:
1. Tony Arbour – Assemblyman for the Boroughs of Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames and The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
2. Barbara Reid – Lead Member for Environment, Hounslow Council
3. Mary Macleod, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth.
4. Angie Bray – Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Ealing Central and Acton.
5. Richard Parry – Director of Strategy & Service Development, London Underground
6. Paula Jenkins – Stakeholder Communications Manager, London Underground
7. Geoff Hobbs, Head of Strategy, London Rail, TfL
8. Kevin Austin – Head of Transport, GLA
9. Jonathan Hollis, Transport Researcher, GLA
10. Chris Calvi-Freeman – Head of Transport, London Borough of Hounslow
11. Richard Jennings – Resident/Piccadilly Line Campaigner
12. Ollie Dewis – Resident /Piccadilly Line Campaigner
July 2, 2008
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