Clapham Junction is bursting!

15 April 2013

Latest station use figures confirm what passengers have known for some time – Clapham Junction is bursting at the seams. Britain’s busiest station, by train departures and number of passengers changing trains, has been further filled by the success of the new London Overground services. Over 21 million passengers change trains there every year – an astonishing figure. Waterloo is the next nearest but that is not even 10 million interchanges a year. We did research in 2010 on what improvements passengers wanted to see:
http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/research/publications/clapham-junction-what-passengers-want
The clear priority was improving the subway. This is still essentially unchanged.

Clapham Junction has been much improved recently by new lifts to the overbridge, the opening up the St John’s Hill entrance and a revamp of the Grant’s Road entrance. However, it remains woefully unfit for purpose. The underpass can be a nightmare if anyone dares venture down there with luggage, a bike or a pram. I pity anyone who interchanges from platform one on the Overground to Southern services on platform 17 – this must rank as one of the most heroic changes of trains going. Meanwhile, small improvements can continue to be made but the stalled re-build programme – refused planning permission – must get re-started at some stage. Otherwise Clapham Junction will become even more trying for passengers.

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