ISSUE: Turnham Green Tube                          

40 Reasons why the Piccadilly Line should stop at Turnham Green

The following list is a compilation of contributions from users of Turnham Green station.

  1. Safety - The trains speed through this crowded narrow platform. On a wet day given that people congregate in the covered area this means that to proceed up the platform passengers must pass close to the Piccadilly tracks on a slippery surface.
  2. Safety - Turnham Green has a narrow platform (24ft) and forcing people to use the District line leads to serious congestion at rush-hour.
  3. Safety - Because of the curve of the track eastbound Piccadilly line trains do not become visible at Turnham Green until they are virtually in the station. The hard-of-hearing will have no warning of the trains approach.
  4. Safety - Piccadilly line drivers do not sound their horn as a warning all the time on the approach to Turnham Green. This haphazard approach to warning passengers increases the danger.
  5. Safety - Passengers running up the stairs of the station to catch a District line train may collide with other passengers leaving the same train. The proximity of a track where the Piccadilly line trains speed through creates the potential for a serious accident.
  6. Safety - As a District line train approaches Hammersmith passengers can often see a Piccadilly line train on the platform. Most of these people will have boarded at Turnham Green. They stand up hoping to run across the platform. A sudden braking at this point could lead to injuries.
  7. Safety - On arrival at Hammersmith on the District passengers anxious to catch a Piccadilly line train will try to dash across the platform if there is one waiting. Under instruction from management, the Piccadilly line drivers will slam the train doors shut before they can board. The potential for an accident here is significant and numerous minor incidents have occurred.
  8. Safety - At the end of the station at Turnham Green where the stairs come up onto the platform the space for passengers is less than 5ft. At rush hour there is a large number of people waiting to get on and off. They meet in this bottleneck with the crush often pushing people towards the train.
  9. Safety - The steep stairs at the station combined with the mass of people going up and down them at rush hour has lead to many minor accidents and may lead to a major one in due course.
  10. The signalling change required for trains to stop at Turnham Green is easy to implement and inexpensive. London Underground regularly make changes to their timetable and this is no more complicated than any other change.
  11. The track and platform are already in place therefore London Underground are under using a capital asset.
  12. London Underground's charter requires them to provide the maximum benefit for the greatest number. The marginally quicker journey time for Piccadilly line users is not noticeable and therefore provides no real benefit. The unnecessary requirement to change trains for Piccadilly line users using Turnham Green means an increased journey time of upto 15 minutes each way which is very noticeable.
  13. 370 Piccadilly line trains pass through Turnham Green in each direction every day of the working week. If no rolling stock were added then the 1 minute delay at Turnham Green would lead to two less trains a day on the line. This would be a reduction in frequency of around 0.5%
  14. With the addition of two extra trains a stop could be introduced at Turnham Green with no reduction in frequency on the Piccadilly line.
  15. Some Piccadilly line trains will stop without warning at Turnham Green when faced with a red signal. Therefore the figure of 0.5% is probably an overstatement.
  16. Forcing passengers to make an unnecessary change significantly adds to the stress and potential time range of the journey. Most passengers estimate that this change can add up to 15 minutes to their journey. Although on many days this figure might only be 2-3 minutes you still have to get up 15 minutes earlier to be sure of getting to work on time.
  17. The efficiency of the whole network is decreased when passengers have to make an unnecessary change. Both the Piccadilly line and District line would operate better without the bottlenecks that are created at Turnham Green.
  18. Chiswick which Turnham Green serves has a population of close to 80,000 which makes it larger than Barnsley, Carlisle and Watford.
  19. Given that Chiswick suffers so much from being in the flight path to Heathrow shouldn't it have a direct public transport link to the airport.
  20. According to the most recent London Underground figures (1997) nearly 7,000 journeys a day are started or finished at Turnham Green. This makes it one of the top 50 most used stations in the tube network outside Zone 1.
  21. It is reasonable to assume that at least a third of those passengers would at some point during their journey use the Piccadilly line making at least 2,000 journeys per day that would be expedited by this change. This number would actually be much higher because more people would start using Turnham Green.
  22. Chiswick is in many ways a dormitory town for central London which means a very large proportion of these journeys occur in rush hour. This makes the overcrowding much worse than a simple analysis of the figures might suggest.
  23. Hammersmith is a more dangerous station for lone women travellers than Turnham Green. Most would prefer to change lines at the latter.
  24. The gap between Hammersmith and Acton is the biggest gap between any two stations on the network for a journey commencing in Zone 2.
  25. Late at night the lack of clarity at when the Piccadilly line does stop at Turnham Green and drivers failure to make the appropriate announcement means that passengers sometime accidentally travel to Acton Town or Hammersmith. At a time when the danger of being subject to a crime on the tube is at its highest this could have unfortunate consequences.
  26. The Piccadilly line is an easier train to use than the District line for disabled passengers. Disabled users of Turnham Green are having their journeys made even more difficult.
  27. The recent implementation of a Controlled Parking Scheme at Bedford Park means that all the residential areas in the vicinity of the station have parking restrictions. This rules out an increase in commuters parking at the station.
  28. If you live in Gunnersbury Park (Zone3) and want to travel west you are forced to buy a Zone 2 pass because you must go to Hammersmith to join the Piccadilly line. This would not apply at Turnham Green.
  29. People travelling east from Richmond or Kew could board the Piccadilly line saving themselves 4-5 minutes each day on their journey.
  30. Passengers using Gunnersbury, Ravenscourt Park and Stamford Brook could now walk to Turnham Green to catch the Piccadilly line.
  31. The District Line service is substandard and likely to remain so until issues with its infrastructure are sorted out. To say that this service means that Turnham Green is adequately provided for is plainly wrong at the present time.
  32. Many Chiswick residents drive to work because the journey time is quicker. The reduced journey time would make many leave there cars at home and use the tube.
  33. There is no natural connection between Silverlink trains and the Piccadilly line. A stop at Turnham Green would make a connection feasible.
  34. Improved links with the E3 and 94 buses would make Central London and Heathrow much more accessible for a large number of people.
  35. The sounding of warning signals by Piccadilly line trains (if intermittent) causes unnecessary noise pollution to local residents.
  36. Many users of the Piccadilly line are tourists and whilst their needs should not be ignored, they should not take priority over those of Londoners.
  37. The system is confusing to many people who are not regular tube users. They often wait at the platform expecting a Piccadilly line train to stop.
  38. People travelling to work from Chiswick are some of the most productive in the country. Anything that aids their productivity is good for the economy as a whole.
  39. To many people the time wasted for users of Turnham Green may seem insignificant. To a daily commuter working a long day 20 minutes is a significant proportion of the limited time they can spend with their family each week.
  40. If London Underground insists that the journey time on the Piccadilly line cannot be cut by this fractional amount why not do a serious analysis on a station by station basis to see which ones should and should not have a service.
Related links

Related articles:

Background to the issue

Is Turnham Green the Most Dangerous Station on the Tube?

Is PPP the key to victory at Turnham Green?