Stanmore Station - Open Letter

Dear Editor,

It is a refreshing change to see a politician honour his pledge. Boris Johnson has made an excellent start as Mayor of London. His decision to cancel Livingstone’s plan to close Underground Station ticket offices is a welcome decision.

Obviously most of the publicity has centred on the North Harrow Station ticket office where the campaign led by James Bond, which I was pleased to support from the beginning, has been successful. However, the effect of this decision is to halt the closure of more than 40 station ticket offices across London including the one at Canons Park Station. The closure of the Canons Park Station would have been bad news for commuters and also for passengers using the station on Wembley Stadium Event Days.

Livingstone had decided to delay the implementation of his plan to close station ticket offices until after the London elections in the hope that this could be quietly resuscitated had Londoners re-elected him.

I am pleased that Boris has honoured his pledge and that the service cuts have been reversed.

Now we need some more action from Boris. The car park at Stanmore Station needs extra capacity so that passengers can park off the road and end the misery for local residents of commuters clogging up their streets. Extra capacity can be provided by installing a second storey on the car park. This will also bring in revenue from the car parking charges.

In addition, we need a lift to be installed at Stanmore Station to enable disabled people and the elderly to access the trains. At the moment, the station features a staircase which is challenging for every pedestrian and quite impassable for the elderly, those who are physically disabled or parents with buggies or pushchairs. Substantial work has been implemented by Tube Lines to install an extra platform to increase the capacity and throughput of trains on the Jubilee Line, now we need action to make the station accessible for everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Blackman

Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Harrow East