Transport for London drops plan to close Caledonian Road tube station

Cllr Claudia Webbe with Cllr Paul Smith, left, and Cllr Paul Convery

Transport for London (TfL) has dropped its plan to close Caledonian Road tube station for 8 months from March after Islington Council threatened a High Court legal challenge.

The dispute occurred after TfL refused to consider an alternative plan for replacing the station’s two lifts. TfL wanted an 8 month total closure. But Islington proposed replacing them one at a time, thereby keeping the station open during the works.

Islington Council’s executive member for environment and transport, Cllr Claudia Webbe, said: “We welcome TfL’s climb down, which shows the council was correct in starting legal proceedings against the decision to close the station for eight months.

TfL says “it would be a waste of public money to fight the council’s legal action” but this is not accurate. TfL caved-in within 4 working days of receiving Islington’s Judicial Review action. They got speedy legal advice which warned transport bosses they had no chance of winning.

TfL says it “will now work with the council to find a solution” and this is very positive indeed. Islington says the lifts can be replaced one at a time and TfL engineers have admitted this is perfectly feasible.

On a typical weekday, almost 10,000 people a day enter and exit the station. The disruption caused by this closure would have been considerable. TfL admitted that most passengers would make an alternative journey via Kings Cross underground station using the already congested bus routes down Caledonian Road.

Cllr Paul Convery adds “the public campaign against this closure shows that TfL cannot afford to ignore its passengers, but sadly TfL bosses did exactly that. The only sat up to pay attention when Islington Council threatened legal action. I want to thank my colleagues Claudia Webbe, Richard Watts and Holloway Councillor, Paul Smith, for their determination and leadership in securing this unprecedented climb-down by TfL.”