Turnham Green Piccadilly Stop Likely To Be Delayed Again

TfL's financial woes mean local commuters may have to wait until end of next decade

Piccadilly line train speeds through Turnham Green

Transport of London (TfL) is to delay completion of the signalling works on the Piccadilly line which means a permanent stop at Turnham Green tube will be pushed even further into the future. There may now not be a stop at the local station until the end of the next decade.

TfL has previously said that the station could receive a full service from the line when the new signalling was in place but their latest business plan shows severe pressure on revenues with income from fares now estimated to be £2.1billion lower than forecast over the next five years. In addition the further delay announced this week of the completion of Crossrail means there will be further pressure on income.

They have confirmed that work on upgrading signalling on the deep-line service such as Piccadilly will be delayed. The upgrade was part of a £5.4billion modernisation of the deep tube lines which had already been delayed by four years by the switching of part of the contract from Bombardier to Thales. Even on the previous timetable the introduction of a stop at Turnham Green could have been as late as 2026. Although the new trains and signalling were due to be introduced on the Piccadilly line by 2023 the service was not going to reach 27 trains per hour (tph) until 2026 which was thought to be the most likely date when the service to Chiswick would be upgraded.

Although the new trains are still expected to be delivered on time, the delay to the signalling looks set to push the Turnham Green stop introduction towards the end of the next decade. We asked TfL about the issue and they confirmed that the stop would be delayed along with the signalling although they were unable to confirm specific timings.

In addition there are likely to be above inflation increases in fares from 2021 and around 2,500 jobs could be at risk as the transport company looks to cut 30% from its back office functions.

In what has been described as the Amazon/Deliveroo effect Londoners are believed to be staying home at more rather than using public transport to go shopping and dine out which has reduced revenues for TfL. TfL say the average Londoner is making 15% fewer trips than they were four years ago.

Work to upgrade signalling on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines is to be completed, with a resultinga 33% increase in capacity by 2023.

Projects to introduce step free access to stations have not been postponed but none of these are in Chiswick.

Cycle Superhighways are mentioned only once in the business plan with no projects including CS9 specified.

December 16, 2018