Liberal Democrats representing Southfield Ward (covering parts of Bedford Park) have outlined what they see the reasons for the Piccadilly Line to stop:
- Turnham Green has a narrow platform and forcing people to use the District line leads to serious congestion at rush-hour and the requirement to change trains for Piccadilly line users using Turnham Green means an increased journey time of up to 15 minutes.
- There are at least 6 million people who use Turnham Green station (Transport for London figures). This makes it one of the most used stations in the tube network outside Zone 1. Also many users of the Piccadilly line are tourists and whilst their needs should not be ignored, they should not take priority over London workers.
- There have been a large number of developments (including the Chiswick Business Park and a lot of new housing) in this part of West London within twenty minutes walking distance, as well as housing developments that have been agreed by Ealing Council to proceed.
- Late at night the lack of clarity as to when the Piccadilly line does stop at Turnham Green and drivers failure to make the appropriate information available mean that users often have no idea if a train is going to stop or not.
However, Peter Evesden of the Bedford Park Society (BPS) is concerned that many people believe that TFL have not explained the reasons for not stopping Piccadilly trains, and has published a note to members highlighting 'the facts have been explained by TfL. Until more signals and track upgrades are installed in 2015, it would be dangerous to stop a Piccadilly Line train at Turnham Green when the service frequency is above 18 trains per hour. A stopping service is safe early morning and late evening now, when the service level is below that.
The real campaign should be to ask the Mayor to bring forward the 2015 date for improvements to this line. The question is whether or not he would do so if he had to change priorities for financial projects and that disappointed voters along the Northern or Bakerloo Lines who are expecting their upgrades earlier.'
The TFL consultation consists of a questionnaire that can be found on the web at www.tfl.gov.uk/piccadillyline and we would encourage all SPSRA Residents to have their say.