Council leader on the future of local transport

Putney's mainline station suffers from one of the most cramped and congested concourses in the capital.

Now at last I hear that South West Trains and Network Rail are putting the finishing touches to an ambitious scheme to erect a new deck over the tracks.

This will create space for a larger booking hall and hopefully ease the crush for passengers. The plans include lifts down to the platforms. If all goes well work could begin in 2009.

We're also hopeful of improvements at Wandsworth Town where the Council aims to use money from the big residential developers in the area to part-fund improvements to the Station.

This is likely to include a new ticket office at the entrance and a canopy to provide some shelter for London-bound commuters on Platform 4.

The ticket office would remove the current dilemma of whether to queue outside for the single ticket machine or run up the stairs to the current office on Platform 2!

Not such good news at East Putney where the fall-out from the demise of Metronet appears to be putting back any hopes of an early start on the new lifts here.

The project is part of London Underground's five year plan - the Council will be lobbying hard for some firm dates.

One of the few 'goodies' floated in the Government's Heathrow expansion plans is a new rail link to the airport from south London.

The Airtrack scheme would provide a route into Terminal 5 from Waterloo via Clapham Junction and Staines. There would also be links from Reading and Guildford.

This project has been around for a long time. It doesn't have to be dependent on the third runway.

There really should be no delay in bringing this forward now - by offering more direct access from this side of the river it would do much to relieve the existing congestion on the Piccadilly Line.

Currently there's no stop planned for Putney. I'll be pressing for a rethink on this - given the good local transport connections it would make sense for us to be included.

Edward Lister
elister@wandsworth.gov.uk

December 19, 2007

Edward Lister is the Leader of Wandsworth Council and a member for Putney's Thamesfield ward.