Cllr Farooq Qureshi

At the meeting with Transport For London (TFL) Liberal Democrats Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead, Cllr Farooq Qureshi and Cllr Keith Rayner discussed the peak time congestion at Leyton tube station. Similar concerns were raised by the residents in Leyton & Whipps Cross community council meeting.

Our inquiries in the matter have revealed that:

In November 2008, The Transport Liaison group of London Borough of Waltham Forest visited Leyton underground station. This visit was arranged by London underground’s (LU) Liaison Manager. The visit looked at crowding issues at the station and the possibility of opening the secondary staircase on the east bound platform. It also considered the role of the station during 2012 Olympics. The London underground’s response was:

The staircase is opened only when LU anticipate large numbers exiting the station, such as during certain football games, and again only when there is supervision by additional staff (very often by British Transport Police Officers). On these occasions, the large volumes of passengers (sometimes up-to 5000 in an hour) justifies the need to open an additional entrance and extra resources to manage it.

However, the occasional need to use this staircase is not sufficient to warrant bringing it into daily operation. The staircase is open to the elements and substantial work would be required to enable it for everyday use. This would include overhead protection, CCTV, lighting, public address system and other customer safety provisions. There are also no oyster readers installed at this secondary staircase. This would mean that customers with oyster pay as you go cards would not be able to complete their journeys and could be charged an exes fare.

While LU recognise that there has been an increase in customers using Leyton over the past several years, station management is confident that there are no safety issues with the current customer flow conditions. The available capacity allows the safe movement of the current volume of customers through the platforms and station. There have been no accidents reported at Leyton, related to over crowding.

The role of Leyton station during Olympics was also discussed. As part of the ODA’s transport strategy for the Olympic park, three stations have been identified as ’Olympic Park Gateway Stations’. They are: Stratford Regional station, Stratford International station and West Ham station. Leyton station was reviewed as part of the transport plan, however these other stations were preferred because of a verity of strategic reasons.

The Liberal Democrats Parliamentary candidate for Leyton & Wanstead, Cllr Farooq Qureshi says:

I have my reservations about this response. Lu and the ODA need to re-think their strategy and consider the possibility of including Leyton tube station in their list of ‘Olympic Park Gateway Stations’. I also call upon the LU to improve the access for disabled passengers which is non existent at Leyton underground station.