Sadiq Khan has responded to concerns about overcrowding at Canada Water station after being pressed on the issue by Assembly Member, Florence Eshalomi.
In Mayor’s Question Time in March, Ms Eshalomi, AM for Lambeth & Southwark, asked the Mayor what he would do to address overcrowding at the busy station, which serves both the Jubilee Line and Overground.
“Many of my constituents are concerned about the daily overcrowding at Canada Water station and their safety when waiting for a train,” she asked the Mayor.
“What are you doing to address this?”
In a written response published earlier this week (April 1) by City Hall, Mr Khan said: “Canada Water can get very busy, but staff are trained to carefully manage passenger flows at the station to ensure a safe travel environment and minimum inconvenience for customers.
“An additional Customer Service Supervisor is also available at the station just to concentrate on passenger flows during the AM peak.
“The London Overground currently provides a 16 trains per hour service in each direction and platform crowding is cleared as quickly as possible.
“TfL is also looking at a number of possible mitigation measures to help ease the crowding on escalators to the Jubilee line at Canada Water which we know can get particularly busy.”
He added that TfL was introducing improvements to address crowding along the Jubilee Line including increased peak services between West Hampstead and North Greenwich.
“Jubilee line trains are now running a peak service for an extra two hours per day, easing congestion at key stations like Canary Wharf, Waterloo and Canada Water,” he argued.
Crossrail – which is beset by delays – was also pointed to as a means of reducing overcrowding on the station.
“It will serve more than half a million customers a day and add 10 per cent more capacity in central London,” added Mr Khan.
“It may also help ease crowding at Canada Water if passengers change at Whitechapel to get to onward destinations such as Canary Wharf, Stratford and the West End.”
Other station upgrades at Elephant & Castle, Victoria and Bank were also “critical” he said, and would relieve pressure on the Tube network as a whole.
The Mayor’s response comes after local concern on transport routes amid planned developments in the area, including the Canada Water Masterplan and Convoys Wharf development in nearby Deptford.
It will be interesting to see what happens at Canada Water station and to the Jubilee Line when Crossrail opens.
As the new line will be a by-pass for the Jubilee Line, it could mean that the Jubilee Line is less busy.
He hasn’t really answered anything!! what use as a resident of Canada Water to me is any of what he said? With the masterplan and the Deptford expansion, the situation is just going to be a nightmare but he will be fine, I have no doubt.. If shutting the barriers at Canada Water station to ease congestion on the platform is a specialists job, I must qualify as a brain surgeon…
Way to avoid the main issue which is that the single escalator down from the Overground line to the Jubilee line is not enough, it has never been enough, and these days it’s a serious blockage.
Another escalator down to the Jubilee line is needed from the Overground platforms, but I understand the station designs has no provision for this to be added (Overground was not foreseen at the time, the station box is a hard constraint).