As everyone who commutes on the Victoria Line knows, it is horrendously 
overcrowded -running at absolute full capacity at peak times. Routinely it is physically impossible for Haringey residents to squeeze on trains at Finsbury Park in the morning. I would have hoped that the Council would have been fighting to relieve these cattle truck conditions, and would be warning property developers against big new housing developments at Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale that risk worsening an already dire situation.
However, papers that went to a recent Planning Committee showed that the Council was doing the opposite, and instead giving developers the green light by telling them that there is ample free capacity on our tube trains for new commuters.
Unbelievably, planning officers have since told me that the transport study they are relying on shows that-
‘the Victoria tube line would have residual capacity of some 52 and 69 per cent in the morning and evening peak hours’.
I’ve asked officers to clarify what exactly that this jargon means (no response so far), but it seems to me they are saying that there is over 50% spare capacity in the peak morning period! What fantasyland is the Council living in if they think the Victoria Line is half empty at rush hour?
I’ve also asked a whole load of extra questions to find out what the Council is playing at – and have asked to see this strange transport study. I think it deserves scrutiny, as I dread to think what the Victoria Line would be like if Haringey Council had its way and doubled passenger numbers!
