Frustrated South West London commuters have slammed the District Line’s poor service saying it’s causing people to change jobs to avoid having to use it.
Commuters on the Wimbledon to East Putney stretch of the Tube line say they have lost hundreds of hours to delays and timetable failures, with some claiming the service’s unreliability has meant parents missing children’s milestones and constant travel misery.
Despite this, TfL says fixing the line’s problems would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and confirmed no funding is currently in place for the complex upgrade.
“People have said they won’t move to Southfields because of the District Line,” said Max Barber, who is leading the Fix the District campaign. It’s not a modern line.”
Southfields, where Mr Barber lives, is served by the south-western stretch of the District Line linking Wimbledon with Central London. Yet, he says infrequent services and regular signalling problems at stations along the route have become an everyday frustration for local residents.
Since launching Fix the District, a website where commuters can log delays, Mr Barber said he has been inundated with stories from people in Southfields and Wimbledon Park who have been directly affected by the unreliable service.
“Someone missed their daughter’s first day of nursery,” he told the LDRS. “I also know one person who changed their job because of the reliability issues.”
Since launching in February, Fix the District has recorded hundreds of delay reports from commuters, with the total passenger time lost now standing at just under 130 hours.
The line, shared with South Western Railway (SWR), is frequently hit by signalling problems and delays, but many commuters say infrequent scheduled services are an equally pressing concern.
For contrast, Mr Barber noted how outer London stations on the Jubilee Line can be served by up to 30 peak time trains an hour. “On the District Line we get 15 an hour, if we are lucky,” he added.
“I got a train yesterday morning. There was one train in two minutes, and the next one was in 19 minutes.”
Mr Barber said the unreliability particularly affects residents in Wimbledon Park and Southfields, where alternative transport options are limited. He told the LDRS how he now often rides a Lime bike to nearby Earlsfield station, where he can catch the more reliable National Rail service to Waterloo.
The unreliability also extends to the departure boards at stations along the line, with commuters complaining that they often display inaccurate information.
“We actually have to explain to friends who come and visit us make sure you look for what is on the train because the board is wrong,” Mr Barber told the LDRS. “It’s insane.”
The infrequency on the line also contributes to overcrowding, with passengers left facing increasingly busy trains. One commuter travelling from East Putney on September 28 reported on Fix the District that their train was “incredibly packed, with everyone squeezed in when there was no real space left”.
Members of Fix the District recently held a demonstration outside Wimbledon station and are planning another in Southfields on October 15. “The campaign has been incredibly well received,” Mr Barber told the LDRS, adding that its petition has now reached 2,000 signatures.
£500k spent so far, but has it made a difference?
Earlier this year TfL invested around £500,000 to improve the signalling infrastructure between Wimbledon and East Putney. The transport body says the work addressed signalling, track circuit, drainage and reliability while allowing faults to be repaired more quickly and with better co-ordination.
Wimbledon’s Lib Dem MP Paul Kohler, who has supported the local campaign, welcomed this recent investment. “They have got the departure boards working,” he noted, adding that his constituents would previously “just ignore” the inaccurate boards.
TfL’s director of asset performance delivery for London Underground, Richard Jones, said the completed upgrades had made a “positive difference” to the service. TfL also acknowledged that information displayed on its boards provides a snapshot of the line as a whole and may differ from conditions passengers experience on station platforms.
However, Mr Kohler MP described the £500,000 works as a “stopgap” and believes his stretch of the District Line still requires a full-scale upgrade to address chronic signalling and frequency problems.
TfL said a full signalling upgrade would involve a large section of Network Rail infrastructure, including terminus stations and depots. Mr Kohler said the complexity of the shared line meant any upgrade would have a “knock-on effect” on SWR services.
As a result, the works are likely to cost “hundreds of millions” of pounds, with no confirmed TfL funding currently in place for the upgrade. “I think the expense is so great and TfL has so little money,” Mr Kohler told the LDRS.
“They didn’t give me any comfort that they were about to do it. What I have said to constituents is I know there’s a problem there, but I am not going to pretend we can get it fixed any time soon.”
He believes the upgrade is the biggest priority for TfL spending in the constituency, alongside hopes for step-free access at South Wimbledon station.
Should Wimbledon Tennis pay towards the upgrades?
With funding a key stumbling block to any future upgrade, Mr Kohler believes Wimbledon Tennis Championships organisers, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), should contribute towards the cost of the work.
The Wimbledon to East Putney section of the District Line is used heavily during the Championships fortnight, with many relying on stations like Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park and Southfields as their primary route to the courts.
However, Kohler said the service “breaks down all the time” during this crucial fortnight, leading to large crowds and delays. He believes pressure on the line will only increase if the AELTC’s plans to build 38 new courts and a show court on the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club site go ahead.
“I think there is a conversation to be had with AELTC,” Mr Kohler told the LDRS.
“If they want to expand, we have to compromise, and part of that compromise is stumping up the money to actually address this, because you really see this under pressure during the Championships.”
However, Mr Kohler said the AELTC was not currently “responding to the idea of compromise”.
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.”
AELTC has been approached for comment.
