Residents in a London neighbourhood have declared they are “fed up” with chronic delays on the District line.
Southfields residents gathered outside their local Tube station to call on Transport for London (TfL) to fix the long-running signalling failures between East Putney and Wimbledon.
Earlier this month, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed how members of the Fix The District campaign had logged more than 130 commuter hours lost to poor service since they began tracking delays on the line this year.
“People get genuinely stressed about this,” Southfields resident Sophia Browning told the LDRS during Thursday’s protest.
“It feels like a lottery when you leave the house. The people of Southfields tend not to make a fuss, but people have just had enough.”
Southfields residents protesting outside their local Tube station
Harrison Galliven
Adam Heffernan, who works at the local Wine Rack branch, said the regular closures at the station were having a real impact on local businesses.
“Footfall drops as much as 30 per cent on the weekend when there are closures,” he told the LDRS. “Saturday is king for us, and if it’s closed on the weekends we lose all that passing traffic.”
James Drago-Ferrante told how District line closures on the opening weekend of his Butty & Co sandwich shop meant he was also denied a lot of passing trade.
Amir Roshani, owner of The Olive Garden restaurant in Southfields, said the disruption was also impacting his local business, as diners often cancelled their bookings due to Tube failings.
Fix the District campaigners at Southfields station
Harrison Galliven
The local businesspeople joined members of Merton and Wandsworth-based campaign group Fix the District outside Southfields station as rush-hour commuters streamed out of the station.
Holding banners highlighting the time lost to District line delays, campaigners called for a permanent solution to signalling failures that they say have plagued the line for years.
“Coming here for me is like a therapy session,” said Emmet Kelly. “It’s been great just talking to other people who have had the same problems.”
Southfields resident Emmet has been using the District line for 13 years. He told of his frustration with the apparent lack of improvement on the line over that period.
“There’s something wrong, it’s not possible that they had worked on the tracks for so many weekends for so many years and the service is still bad,” he said. “That makes no sense.”
Southfields resident James Drago-Ferrante was among the protesters on Thursday’s demo
Harrison Galliven
Commuters said the unreliable service was disrupting their daily lives.
“It’s just a really bad start to the day,” Emmet said. “Sometimes I’ll come back and I’ll be a real grump because of the train. I am usually a happy-go-lucky guy.”
Putney Labour MP Fleur Anderson, who joined the demonstration, said she had previously worked with Wimbledon’s Lib Dem MP Paul Kohler to press TfL to improve the line.
Earlier this year, TfL announced a £500,000 upgrade of track circuits and fault-monitoring equipment on the East Putney to Wimbledon branch.
While TfL has said the improvements have had a “positive impact” on the service, Ms Anderson said she was hearing a different story from constituents and raised concerns about the performance data being collected on the line.
Large queues at Southfields station on the District Line during Wimbledon
Juliet Rix
TfL has previously said a full signalling upgrade would involve significant Network Rail infrastructure, which shares track on the branch. Any such project would likely affect other South Western Railway (SWR) services and come at a considerable cost.
Ms Anderson said the project is “perfectly feasible”, adding that she was continuing to speak to TfL and SWR bosses about the issue.
Her frustration stems partly from the fact that a full signalling upgrade on the branch was initially included in TfL’s Four Lines Modernisation programme, which sought to improve the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines.
However, the branch was removed from the programme in September 2020. TfL told the LDRS the planned works would not have resolved the signalling problems because they would have relied on existing infrastructure.
Richard Jones, Director of Asset Performance Delivery for London Underground, said: “We know that historically there have been problems with the service that we have delivered to customers who live in this area, and we will continue to work with Network Rail to improve it as much as we can.”
Addressing the recent investment on the branch, Mr Jones added: “The work has addressed issues with signalling, track circuits and drainage and has improved the reliability of the railway, while also meaning faults can be repaired more quickly and with better co-ordination.”