Residents in Southfields, a London neighbourhood that prides itself on not making a fuss, have declared they are “fed up” with chronic delays on their local District line branch. On Thursday (October 15), they gathered outside Southfields Tube station to demand Transport for London (TfL) fix the long-running signalling failures between East Putney and Wimbledon. Local MP Fleur Anderson said a solution was “perfectly feasible”.
The demonstration, held as rush-hour commuters streamed out of the station, was organised by the Fix the District campaign group, which has logged more than 130 commuter hours lost to poor service since it began tracking delays on the line this year. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) first revealed the figures earlier this month.
Businesses hit hard by weekend closures
Local business owners say the disruption is having a tangible impact on trade. Adam Heffernan, who works at the Wine Rack branch in Southfields, said footfall drops by as much as 30 per cent on weekends when closures are in place. “Saturday is king for us, and if it's closed on the weekends we lose all that passing traffic,” he told the LDRS.
James Drago-Ferrante, owner of Butty & Co sandwich shop, said District line closures on his opening weekend denied him a lot of passing trade. Amir Roshani, owner of The Olive Garden restaurant, said diners often cancelled bookings due to Tube failings.
Resident Sophia Browning captured the mood: “People get genuinely stressed about this. 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.”
Commuters share frustration at lack of progress
Emmet Kelly, a Southfields resident who has used the District line for 13 years, told the LDRS he was frustrated by the apparent lack of improvement 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.”
He added: “It’s just a really bad start to the day. Sometimes I’ll come back and I’ll be a real grump because of the train. I am usually a happy-go-lucky guy.” For Kelly, attending the demonstration was cathartic: “Coming here for me is like a therapy session. It's been great just talking to other people who have had the same problems.”
MPs press TfL on signalling upgrade
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. Fix the District said the upgrade had failed to prevent three signalling incidents during this summer's Wimbledon tennis fortnight, one of the line’s busiest periods.
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, he 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.”
