Political parties united against Northern line closures

Published: 11 February 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

A RARE alliance between Camden’s political parties was forming last night (Wednesday) as councillors united in protest at months of “costly and disruptive” closures on the Northern line.

It was revealed this week that if an upgrade programme goes ahead, all of Camden’s 10 Tube stations on the line will be closed for more than 35 weekends between December and October next year. 

This will include 21 full line closures and 14 partial closures from Stockwell to Edgware and High Barnet. The entire line will also close an hour early every night from July – with reduced trains from 8.30pm.

Mayor Boris Johnson has openly attacked the closure plan claiming that contractors Tube Lines has failed to learn lessons from troubled works to the Jubilee line, where major delays mean works are not expected to finish until October – 10 months late.

Now councillors in Camden have echoed Mr Johnson’s concerns, labelling the closures as “disproportionate” and “costly”.

Councillor Andrew Marshall, deputy leader of the council and leader of the Conservatives, said: “I would hope that the mayor and Transport for London (TfL) are still going to challenge why this is necessary and try to get the number of closures reduced. I don’t think we should take this as a fait accompli. It strikes me as what is most convenient to Tube Lines, rather than what’s best for the customer.”  

Lib Dem councillor Janet Grauberg, the group’s deputy leader, added: “I’m a councillor for Kilburn and I’ve seen the disproportionate effect the Jubilee line closures have had on businesses there, particularly pubs and shops that rely on weekend trade. 

“My concern would be that the mistakes we’ve seen day-in day-out will now be repeated in areas such as Camden Town and Hampstead.”

And Councillor Nash Ali, leader of the Labour group, said: “I think it’s absolutely terrible given the suffering that we’ve already seen with other closures. 

“Surely that shows that it could be better planned. My worry would be for people commuting to work and the discomfort they are going to have to go through.”

Tube Lines has said the closures are necessary to improve the “sluggish” line, and reduce journey times by 18 per cent. 

Under its contract, London Underground is obliged to give access to Tube Lines. 

But a spokeswoman for TfL said it was “urging” Tube Lines to review the disruptive schedule.

She said: “We recognise closures are necessary to upgrade the Northern line but we are urging them to do them in such a way so as to cause the minimum disruption to customers as possible.”

Brian Coleman, Camden’s representative on the Greater London Authority, suggested a three-week block closure in August rather than dragging it out over almost two years.

He said: “I’d be happy with that if there was a guarantee from Tube Lines that they would get the work done. But we’ve seen the problems with the Jubilee line.”

A spokeswoman for Tube Lines said block closures would be less efficient as they would create “dead time” where the line was closed but not being worked on.

She added: “Unfortunately there is no way round it. If we could do the work without closing the line at weekends then we would, but it is not possible. 

“We only have four to five hours at night to work on the lines, and it would take four hours just to set the track up for testing.”

As yet, no specific details have been announced over how many rail replacement buses will be provided by TfL, but a spokeswoman said they would be running a “robust” service.