Tony Arbour Urges Mayor to Act Now on Turnham Green
GLA representative produces detailed report arguing for a full Piccadilly line service
Tony Arbour, the Greater London Assembly representative for the area, has published a detailed report which strongly urges Boris Johnson to immediately introduce a Piccadilly line stop at Turnham Green.
He says of the report 'All Aboard at Turnham Green', 'This provides statistical backing making the case for Turnham Green to be a regular stop on the Piccadilly Line to cope with overcrowding at the station. There is a significant movement locally pushing for this vital change to the Underground timetable.'
A Piccadilly line train speeds through Turnham Green
The report contains a statistical analysis which Tony Arbour claims shows that the arguments advanced by Transport for London (TfL) for not having a full service at the station are obsolete or likely to become obsolete in the future.
He dismisses the cost benefit analysis used by TfL pointing out that, although the average journey time saved is quite marginal according to their numbers, regular users point out that they often take 15 minutes or more longer due to the lack of a Piccadilly line service at Turnham Green.
The report also shows that the an annual footfall of 6 million passengers at Turnham Green is on an upward trend, unlike some of the nearby stations on the same line. If the annual number of passengers entering and exiting at Turnham Green since 2007 is compared with other stations on this part of the District line where the Piccadilly Line runs alongside, Turnham Green exceeds these stations in terms of growth and footfall. Mr. Arbour argues that this 'provides statistical backing making the case for Turnham Green to be a regular stop on the Piccadilly Line to cope with overcrowding at the station.'
He also cites figures which show that overall during June and July 2013, in terms of lost customer hours, the performance figures for the District Line compared to the Piccadilly Line were poor, with District Line customers losing 74,254 travelling hours compared to 26,072 for those using the Piccadilly Line.
Mr. Arbour points out that with the arrival of Crossrail a significant number of public transport users travelling to Heathrow will switch to this faster service which will get to Heathrow from Liverpool Street in 32 minutes. He argues that this another reason for TfL to revisit their cost-benefit analysis.
The report concludes by asking the the Mayor to instruct TfL to fully integrate Turnham Green into the Piccadilly Line and ensure that all Piccadilly Line trains stop at Turnham Green from January 2014. If the Mayor and TfL are, at this stage, unwilling to agree to this first recommendation then they are asked to give an assurance that, following the upgrade of the Piccadilly Line in 2015 and with the added benefit of the future Crossrail service, all Piccadilly Line trains will stop at Turnham Green station. In addition the Mayor and TfL are urged to introduce a 6-month pilot scheme from January 2014 allowing Piccadilly Line trains to stop at Turnham Green station on a regular basis throughout weekdays and weekends in order to assess comprehensively the viability of making this a permanent change.
The recent consultation exercise carried out by TfL resulted in one of the largest responses to any consultation they have ever held with over 14,000 responses. The Mayor is due to announce the results and possibly related recommendations in the near future. TfL's press office have not responded to our request for confirmation of when the announcement is due to be made.
December 17, 2013
