 |
| Mark Clarke at Tooting Bec station, on the Northern Line |
Despite furious complaints from local residents, before being defeated at the polls, the former Labour Mayor of London pushed ahead with his plans to split the Northern Line.
- That people wanting to shop in the West End on a Saturday will always have to change trains.
- Trains will only run to the City on a Sunday, despite the fact that no one wants to go to work on a Sunday.
- There will no longer be a mix of Bank branch and Charing Cross branch trains during the day.
This is a precursor to shutting down direct access to the Charing Cross line completely and forcing even rush hour commuters to have to change.
|
Before...
 |
After...
 |
Labour's plan
 |
Mark Clarke conducted a survey on the subject and 1000s of local people opposed the former Labour Mayor’s proposals. Mark told the former Labour Mayor about the strength of feelings on the subject and confronted him personally about it after a television news debate. The former Mayor was dismissive and has refused to accept Mark Clarke’s request to visit Wandsworth to listen to the concerns of commuters.
By contrast, Boris Johnson agreed to meet with Mark Clarke and heard first hand from him the results of the survey. His team of advisers have been pouring over the survey results.
Mark said: “The former Mayor has split the Northern Line by stealth. While he and London Underground managers pretended that no decision was made, they cut more and more trains to Charing Cross. They stopped every single direct Charing Cross line train outside peak times. And they also dramatically cut back on the peak time trains. They never did any meaningful consultation on this. For some reason the former Mayor thought that people wanted to travel to the City (Bank branch) at the weekend. We know that actually people want to travel to the West End (Charing Cross branch)."
Mark is calling on the new Conservative Mayor, Boris Johnson and Transport for London for a decent Charing Cross branch service to be restored.
Mark Clarke is interviewed on BBC Radio London Breakfast Show discussing proposals for changes to the Northern Line. First broadcast on 19th September 2007.