Being the slowpoke I am, I only just came across this story on Brain Damage:
The other petition finds David Gilmour adding his voice to a local transport issue (giving rise to a headline of "Residents tickled Pink by campaign support" maybe?). The problem in a nutshell is that a London tube line (the Piccadilly line) only stops at the Turnham Green station between 5:28am and 6:45am in the morning, and 10:30pm to 12:48am - and despite 40 years of lobbying for an all-day tube stop, residents have had no success.
Now with this petition on the Downing Street (the UK Prime Minister's residence/office) website, and with the support of David, and other well-known residents such as comedian Jim Davidson, the area hopes their 40 year battle gets more attention - and a resolution to the problem.
What the article fails to mention is that Turnham Green is served by the District line, viz:
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The District line is the green one while the Piccadilly is dark blue. The Piccadilly line emerges from its tunnel at Barons Court and runs between the District line tracks all the way to Acton Town - the map is drawn as it is for clarity. The Piccadilly line has platforms at Ravenscourt Park (westbound only) and Turnham Green but trains are not scheduled to stop there - the service runs fast between Hammersmith to Acton Town.
As the petition says, Piccadilly trains do stop at Turnham Green in the early mornings and late evenings. If you want to get to the station at any other time you need to use the District line.
I suspect the core of the moaning of local residents is that if they are travelling from central London (from the right) they have to sit on "crowded" rush-hour District line trains to Richmond and Ealing Broadway and watch Piccadilly line trains go whistling by on the adjacent track. True, but making it stop at Turnham Green permanently will start people who live at Ravenscourt Park complaining that it doesn't stop THERE. And then people who live near Stamford Brook will start complaining that they haven't even got Piccadilly platforms!
I can see it's a slight annoyance when travelling eastbound (from the left) on the Piccadilly line but my bet is that most of the people signing this petition are local commuters who want to get home from work three minutes faster - a Piccadilly train that leaves Hammersmith will get to Turnham Green three minutes before a District line train leaving at the same time.
LU's defence on this matter probably rests on the fact that the District line has a higher number of trains per hour westbound than the Piccadilly line and that the D-Stock used on the District line has more capacity than the 1973 tube stock used on the Piccadilly line. Also, the Piccadilly line has never stopped regularly at Turnham Green ever since the station was first opened in July 1932. The reason it stops early morning and late evening is to save people waiting for connections to the District line when the trains are fewer at those times.
It all boils down to selfish people wanting to get one over on an organisation they see as ruining their lives every day with hot, overcrowded trains and having to change at Hammersmith on the way home (Barons Court is a much easier place to change - it's quieter). You'd have thought they'd have got used to it by now ...
Get a bloody life. And when did you last see David Gilmour on the tube, tutting about having to change for Turnham Green?
