VILLIERS: EARLY CLOSURES ON THE NORTHERN LINE ARE A CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Theresa Villiers, Member of Parliament for Chipping Barnet and Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, has expressed concern about a proposal by Tube Lines that could see parts of the Northern Line close as early as 10pm on weekdays when planned engineering work gets underway early next year.

Tube Lines claim that the early closures would significantly speed up the planned upgrades which are due to be carried out over a two year period. Improvements are set to be made to the Northern Line’s signalling system to increase capacity by 20 per cent. It is expected though that only small sections of the line would close early at any one time as engineers move from section to section and that central London services would only be affected at weekends.

However, the announcement comes days after the chief executive of Tube Lines, Dean Finch, was heavily criticised by Mayor Boris Johnson and forced to offer a public apology to customers of the Jubilee Line after engineering work overran, despite regular weekend closures. The 10pm closure scheme is similar to that pioneered on the Victoria Line which suffered repeated early weekday closures and caused significant disruption to passengers forced to find alternative routes home.

Theresa said, “Of course my constituents want the Northern Line upgrade to go ahead and to be delivered as quickly as possible. However, our end of the line has already been plagued with weekend closures. 10pm closures would cause yet more hassle for passengers, as they did when they were tried out on the Victoria Line.”

“I’ll be keeping up the pressure on London Underground and Tube Lines to keep the Northern Line running reliably and carry out engineering works in a way which minimises the disruption to passengers.”