District Line Chaos As Tube Work Over-Runs

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Rush-hour tube suspension on Putney to Wimbledon branch

There was chaos on the Wimbledon branch of the District Line during the rush-hour on Monday (October 10) due to the over-running of weekend engineering works.

A spokesman from London Underground said that the line suspension was due to track replacement contractor Balfour Beatty's work, to replace track and conductor rails, which slipped so badly on Sunday that LU took the decision to intervene and divert its own engineering resources to the site:
"Work was completed after the rush hour peak this morning, but customers lost more than two hours of peak services, and the site will also require more work at a later date.  We will be meeting urgently with Balfour Beatty senior management"

At Putney station the 93 buses to Putney were said to be packed.

David Waboso, London Underground's Director of Capital Programmes, has issued out the following statement:
"What happened on the District line this weekend was completely unacceptable, and we will be taking robust action with Balfour Beatty to ensure this does not happen again. There can be no excuses - Balfour Beatty knew the job that needed to be done and more than enough time was scheduled to complete the work, but only our intervention has prevented these works over-running even later. It is simply not good enough and we will be demanding answers."

Assembly Member Richard Tracey has said:
" This is a totally unacceptable breakdown of works and most inconvenient for local commuters. TfL Tube must move quickly to correct it and compensate the travelling public"

October 10, 2011