Forum Topic

If stopping Piccadilly line trains at Turnham Green is easy...

... why didn't the Conservatives do it when Boris Johnson was mayor?

Anita Blake ● 2442d17 Comments

It's not easy. It's just another Tory being 'economical with the truth' in an attempt to get elected.

Ken Munn ● 2442d

Easy, as in ‘easiest deal ever’.  The usual bollocks.

Alastair Banton ● 2442d

This undeliverable promise probably reflects a realisation by the Conservatives that Shaun Bailey has no chance of becoming Mayor. It also means that Nicholas Rogers, who is likely to be the next Assembly Member for the area can shelve the issue for his tenure. By demanding the impossible he basically ends the need to do anything practical on the issue.What would have been preferable would have been for the Conservatives either to pledge to work for a gradual epxansion of the service over the next decade (which won't be easy either but I don't think it is as difficult as some people claim) or a complete review of the way the line operates on its western stretches. The massive gap in provision between Hammersmith and Acton Town, the biggest by far anywhere on the line, looks especially anomolous when other stations very close together with much less usage get a full service.

Paul Corcoran ● 2442d

What is with Tory and transport claims - Joanne Biddolph's battle cry of 'Not an inch of pavement to CS9' sounds a little hollow now - unless she lays down in front of the diggers.

John Stroud ● 2441d

I saw  the photo of Nick "Rodger "on the front page, now he does not look like the usual  nice but dim Tory boy! As for Shun Edwards another Tory waste of space. I am not a fan of Shindig Khan either so another wasted vote for mayoral elections!! So much for British politics eh! Going back to the crisps nostalgia thread.

James Smith-Jones ● 2441d

Other candidates are available.

Ken Munn ● 2441d

What sensible, caring, knowlegeble, personable person would ever want to put themselves up as a politician in the present situation?  They suffer mindless, very nasty, personal abuse;  brickbats delivered in screaming sound-bites, without proper thought or reason.  We are reaping what we have sowed!  The good old days when we had people of real stature, of both left and right persuasions, has long gone.  Those old politicians could debate. They could speak with passion and inspire and hold people's attention - we respected them even as we disagreed with some of them.  Nowadays???  We get the politicians we deserve!

Jennifer Selig ● 2441d

Agree, thing is we can find out so much more about them with Internet these day and often that is used against them.

Janice Evans ● 2441d

Went through Turnham Green on the District Line yesterday and was astounded at how few people boarded or disembarked from the train compared to most other stops. One wonders if a station at Turnham Green is needed at all?

Steve Taylor ● 2439d

Hey Steve, TG is one of the busiest stations in west London. And any aspiring assemblyman who says there's no reason why TfL can't easily add the stop to Picc Line services is either telling porkies or is seriously deluded.  The best thing I read in the front page article is that Tony Arbour is retiring...CCF 

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 2436d

Chris, in your view, is there any good reason why the service couldn't be extended even marginally in the mornings and evenings?

Francis Rowe ● 2436d

Francis, this was explained in detail in the other thread a couple of weeks ago.

Al Webber ● 2436d

Francis, in the previous discussion on this it was explained that there are fewer trains running when the Piccadilly line stops at Turnham Green.Your question can therefore be reworded as:"any good reason why there could be fewer Piccadilly line trains running in the mornings and evenings?"Maybe you can think of some.

Michael Robinson ● 2436d

Perhaps Chris should be given an opportunity to answer the question

Felicity Caborn ● 2435d

Hi FelicityFrom the very opposite side of the world I haven't been actively keeping up with this issue for the last six years but was at the forefront of community & LB Hounslow efforts to get the Piccadilly line to stop at Turnham Green c 2002-2013. So I don't know whether an incremental increase in stopping could be achieved in the early morning and late evenings without resignalling. What I can recall is that stopping at TG at all times (which is what Chiswick people want and deserve) could theoretically be accommodated within the existing service frequency but the addition of that stop would remove any chance of the service coming back into order if there were any delays anywhere.  In other words, it compromises reliability for all passengers, especially in the peaks.  When I left the issue and returned home to New Zealand at the end of 2013 I believed that only resignalling would achieve the desired outcome of having all Picc trains stop at TG while maintaining service reliability.  I presume this is still the case. What our campaign did achieve was to reverse the negativity within TfL and get them to agree that the new signalling system would be designed to facilitate the stop and that when the new signals were in place, the Picc line trains would stop at TG. While there have obviously been huge delays in the resignalling programme, I sincerely hope there has been no backsliding on the above-described commitment.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 2435d

Chris, thanks for that.Sad to say things have gone downhill since you left the area and it has to be the case that this is because there isn't really anybody fighting Chiswick's corner any more.Bus services along the High Road have been reduced by about 30% and overcrowding at local tube stations has increased with Gunnersbury requiring occasional queueing to control the number of people at the station. Chiswick Business Park has seen more building open up since you left.The train service has not got any more reliable and strikes are a regular occurence with the network operator close to bankruptcy resulting in a poor service.The roads are ever more congested. Added to the levels of traffic you would have known there are additional problems such as the closure of Hammersmith Bridge and the massive building projects going on in the area particularly between Chiswick Roundabout and Kew Bridge. These are just in the early stages with the Brentford Stadium project ongoing but much more in the pipeline.Love or hate CW9 it can't be denied that in the short term the construction of it will add to these problems and in the medium term its proponents are not claiming it will reduce traffic in the area.Chiswick is becoming an area of relatively transport poverty and even a small win for W4 would be very welcome. One suggestion was that, as Piccadilly line trains often seemed to be held outside Acton Town or trundle through TG slowly early in the morning, they must be getting ahead of schedule because of reduced dwell times because of the small number of people they need to pick up at stations west of TG. The hope would be that this would create enough slack in the schedule that would allow an extension of the stopping service for half an hour or so until the line started to get busier.People like Al Webber who know much more about this than me are dismissive of the idea and his views deserve respect so I'm prepared for disappointment but surely TfL needs to act proactively to try and stop the continued deterioration of the transport network in Chiswick and this could be a low cost change with a potentially significant benefit.

Francis Rowe ● 2435d

Francis, you could also add that as the accessibility of rail and tube stations in the rest of London has improved over the last 20 years, there has been no improvement at those in Chiswick.Chiswick Park, Gunnersbury, Turnham Green and Stamford Brook remain only accessible by long flights of stairs.  Kew Bridge is the same but may improve in the future on the London bound side only with improvements associated with the new Brentford Football Stadium development.

Adam ONeill ● 2433d