Passenger Transport Liaison Group - Thursday 25 September 2025, 6:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Passenger Transport Liaison Group
Thursday, 25th September 2025 at 6:30pm 

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Thanks Michael. So yeah, good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Passenger Transport Liaison Group.
My name is Councillor Vilkis and I'll be chairing this meeting. It's my first time chairing the meeting so please do allow any mistakes.
We've had apologies from Timothy Dye, who's in the British Transport Police, Stephen Hales from the Metropolitan Police and David Hewson from the British Transport Police also.
Okay, members of the group, I'll call your names in order of representative group attendance,
so just switch on your mic to confirm. Once you've confirmed, then obviously go back on mute.
So for in terms of councillors, obviously with myself, and then Councillor Hamilton.
Present.
Councillor Yates is not present. Other attendees also.
Jack, I'm here.
Oh, hello. Sorry.
Hello everyone, good evening. You're the one person over, sorry.
Jenny Yates, Cabinet Member of Transport. Thanks Jenny. So I'll now go through and state the name
of all the other attendees in this room, so each person as I go around just come off and
introduce yourselves. So, Sidoni. Hi, good evening. My name is Sidoni
Forest brand. I'm a senior transport planner for Wandsworth Council.
Malcolm. Malcolm Barrage, First Bus London Network Performance Manager this week.
Jack. Hi everyone, I'm Jack Walton, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Network Rail for the Wessex
Thanks, Ruth. Gabrielle. Good evening, everyone. I'm Gabrielle
Aaron. I'm the Vulnerabilities Manager for the Community Safety Team across Richmond
and Wandsworth. Thank you. James.
Hi, James Picard. I'm the Local Engagement Manager for TfL responsible for engagement
with Wandsworth. Thank you. Yvonne.
Well, we can't hear you, I'm afraid, for some reason. I'll go to Joel and I'll come back
to you. Joel Adams, Transport for London. I work in
our Investment Planning Directorate. I lead on our investment on step three access on
the underground. Thank you. David.
Hi, everybody. David Tidley, the Head of Transport Strategy for Wandsworth Council.
Thanks, David. We'll just take it as acknowledged from me that Yvonne Leslie is here and perhaps
she can engage herself in a moment. So the first item on the agenda is the minutes of
the last meeting. The group was held on the 13th of May 2025. So can I just cheque that
The minutes of that meeting are agreed.
Magical.
Agenda item two, are there any declarations
of either pecuniary, other registrable
or non -registrable interests?
Please declare any such interests quoting the item
and paper number in which you have those interests
and describing the nature of them,
including whether or not you'll be taking part in the item.
Can't imagine, but let me just scroll across.
No, perfect. Moving on in that case, are we going to defer Agenda Item Number 3? Is that
correct? That's correct, isn't it, Michael? Yes, if the group agree, and that's owing
to recent developments, but I believe Gabrielle, in a couple of weeks, will be looking to arrange
a private meeting with councillors on the group to provide them an update, because at
this time the information isn't I guess detailed enough to give you a comprehensive update.
Cool, that's fine. I've just spotted Yvonne's back so do you want to just say hello?
Yeah sorry I think there's a problem with my mic report. I'm Yvonne Leslie and I'm from GTR
RealWise. Thanks very much. So is everyone happy to to defer agenda item number three as discussed?
Yeah. Okay, moving on to agenda item number four. In that case, and handing over to Network Rail,
who will go through the items on trains and overground.
Yeah, thank you, Councillor. Hi, everyone. Good to see you all again. So, with respect to the
first item on our agenda, so the Wandsworth Town access pool scheme, kind of the progress that
we've made there. So, we are at what's considered kind of a critical stage. So, we've completed the
detailed design and pricing.
And also we've been working quite closely
with the council on that.
We're now at kind of a critical stage
of securing the necessary funding for delivery
from the Department for Transport
in terms of kind of what the next steps look like from us.
So I understand, so last week we had a reproductive meeting
with the Department for Transport
and as well as council representatives.
Internally, we have a board meeting,
next to an internal sort of panel board
to discuss the programme that we plan to meet
the DFT later next month. I understand that the DFT will be writing to the council about
sort of the funding contributions for the scheme and I don't have a necessary update of where that
is currently right now but I'm sure the council officers will know. But yeah, so we've kind of
completed as far as we can about receiving the funding for delivery so it's in that kind of
position right now. I think there's certainly all the will in the world from all the organisations
where it's trained off Braids Council and Network Rail. It's just a case about securing the relevant
funding to drive down this project to completion. And then if I just, I'll go to Queensland Road.
So the Queensland Road second entrance, when I was looking back for a minute, I know I said this
would be open in June. There's a slight snag, which I suppose best described as a sort of
away problem that when they actually when they've gone through the building the second entrance,
a window that was previously boarded up has now become quite accessible to the public
and we've been working with the third party and in terms of rectifying that issue. We are hopeful
that should be done shortly and then within the next month or so we'll be able to open up the
Queenstown Road second entrance. I've actually got a meeting with the scheme project's interface
manager from our asset protection team that's been developing the scheme with the third party
and if okay I will keep the council updated on that. I know it's appeared in quite a few of these
kind of forums and I know there's the interest there from the public as well so we're very
nearly there and I'll provide a written update once I've got a firm date for you all.
Thanks Jack. Any questions on those two?
26. If the funding for delivery is confirmed from the
Department of Transport and the various parties, then it would be a 2020 start, a 2026 start.
Thank you. Okay, I can't see any other questions, so
just flag what Michael popped in the chat. Gabrielle will leave in four minutes unless
there are any. So if you have any questions for her, please do ask them now. Obviously,
as her agenda item has been deferred.
Okay, East Putney Rail Bridge.
That's me.
I can talk about this.
So the council has secured developer funding
to make improvements to the two railway bridges,
which are located either side
of East Putney Underground Station.
The bridges are owned, there's one owned by Network Rail
and one by TfL. So the bridge to the west of the station is owned by TfL and the
bridge to the east of the station is owned by Network Rail. So we've been
working with both Network Rail and London Underground to agree the
improvements to the two bridges which includes cleaning the bridges, repainting
the surfaces and the underside of each structure, upgrading the pigeon proofing
and jet washing the adjacent brickwork around either bridge and
repairing the pointing and implying the name East Putney on the two approaches.
So it would be on as you approach from the east and as you approach from the west.
The quote allows for a two -colour scheme on the bridge with some
additional detail on trim and trim on some of the finer bits at the top of the bridge.
And
the refurbishment work is going to be carried out by M group who are the
approved contractors for both Network Rail and TfL so they're able to work on
both structures which is good. We've met with TfL network management and busses
and the council's network management to sort of agree and discuss how the work
can be carried out and how the busses and traffic will be managed. So we've
agreed that the work would take place over four nights, so it would be Monday to
Friday and it would be overnight works going from 10pm to 5 .30am and we won't work at the
weekend because the night busses are really busy through that area at the weekend and
TfL have asked if we can just keep that sort of free of any work.
There'll be temporary signals in place to manage the traffic and there'll be a single
lane closure so we won't be closing the road entirely at any point, the traffic will still
be able to flow but just albeit slightly slower. And the bridges are quite
close to residential dwellings so we've agreed that all noisy work would have to
be finished by midnight each night so they just have like a two -hour window
when they start. The work is expected to take 40 nights and we're hoping to start
this side of Christmas. We're just waiting, we have an SO83 in the system at
the moment which is circulating for signature which is seeking approval just
sign the necessary paperwork with M group who are the contractors. So once we get that signed,
everything seems to be in place to start. Network Rail will manage the comms with the local
businesses and residents. They'll do a letter drop and include all the contact details of the
sort of site manager and project management from their side. And if there's any issues,
people would contact you know M group via Network Rail directly and the council we can assist on
any comms on the project but that's the plan at the moment and that's the update really.
Thank you very much uh Sidoni. Any questions on East Putney?
No, perfect. Moving on to agenda item number five, which is the underground. So step three, access projects.
So I think that's probably for me and Joel. So I invited Joel this evening, who has been working.
His team works on the feasibility studies that have been ongoing for a while.
I was hoping Joey might be able to give a bit of a synopsis of how that's been going and talk through that.
Yeah, that's fine. So we have been working for quite a while now on Feasibility Act,
teaching Broadway and looking at how to make it step three, what would be involved, what it would cost and how we would do it.
We announced this last year and we previously said, I think originally we said we hope to be able to provide a substantive update this summer.
And I think we have most recently said we expect to try to update this autumn.
I had hoped we would be further along than we are right now, but we also knew when we selected Tooting Broadway to look at Step Free Access,
that we were picking a very challenging station.
and we are finding it challenging to find a technical solution that will deliver step free at Tooting Broadway
while having minimal impact on the station operation and also understanding how we build it with regard to the road network
because I suspect I'm talking to a group of people who all know this, but the crossroads at Tooting Broadway is incredibly sensitive
in terms of general traffic, in terms of busses, in terms of access to the hospital.
The space between the platforms at Tooting Broadway sits under that main road.
We are well advanced now in feasibility. I hope we will be in a position to share what we would
term our single preferred option in November. We had hoped to be in a position to share it now,
but like I say, we are still kicking the tyres of it to understand it a bit better.
And that, so in short, that's where we are.
And our work is not a secret.
I'm not sure this is necessarily the best form for it,
but we are very happy to come into Wandsworth to spread our plans,
to explain what it is that we are working on,
where our emerging single preferred option has got to,
to talk through the technical challenges if you want.
I mean to go a very high level we need to extend a tunnel from under the existing ticket hall.
It needs to extend under the road. Ideally it goes under the myriad of utilities that are under that
road and then it needs to drop down again to land between the platforms. We're looking at how we can
thread a tunnel that is above the running tunnels but below the utilities. We are still looking at
how we do that without a very prolonged and extensive trench in the road, which I think
would be extremely disruptive. So we are working hard on it. I appreciate you're probably frustrated
that we haven't moved faster, but that's where we are.
Thanks, Joel and James. Any questions? David?
It wasn't so much a question, well it probably is. Joel, Crossrail 2 land in Broadway as
I understand it is still safeguarded for Crossrail 2 and as part of that quite clearly there
was going to be a big hole in the ground as well. So I'm just wondering are you joined
up with your colleagues about what might have been proposed as part of that?
We are aware of the Crossrail 2 proposals and we, in particular, we mustn't do anything
that precludes the later delivery of Crossrail 2.
The position we've taken is that we, what we're testing is can we deliver step three
to the Northern Line entirely independently of it, because I don't think anyone on this
call would like us to wait for Crossrail 2 to do this.
this. So, yeah, we're aware of it, but like I say, our approach is more, we mustn't do anything that makes Crossrail too
hard or less likely to happen than that we're actually integrating into it.
Cool. I assume, Joel, that anyone, the single preferred option, it would then include timelines as well.
It will include indicative timelines and an early stage cost estimate which is essentially
a point estimate with quite a large range around it. How fast that timeline moves then
depends on investment decisions in terms of actually funding the full design and then
the build of what I do not have a number as I sit here but it is going to be an expensive
and complex project and we need to see the output, we need to see the cost. We fully understand the
financial challenges facing councils in London for every single step free project. We are sitting
down with councils once we get an indicative cost and asking the question of whether you are able to
bring any financial support either directly or through your influence to assist us in paying for
and we will come in and have that conversation once we have a better idea of where the cost for this is lending.
Yeah, OK. Thanks, both. Any more questions, comments on that agenda item before we move on?
No, can't see any. Which brings us to the final substantive item on the agenda, which is busses.
So Malcolm, I assume that's you.
Probably more for myself on the first couple of lists.
Thanks, Joel, we don't need to stick around if you need to get off at all.
Thanks very much for that. I appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
So the first agenda item is around the 315 extension into Springfield Hospital Development.
So basically this is a previous agenda item from the last meeting. The changes actually
went live in May just before the previous meeting. So they're well established now.
and we think they're running quite well so far. There is a further proposal that's
been investigated for additional stops along the southern end of Springfield Drive.
The stops have not been installed there yet because there's a section of the
development which is still under construction and currently lacks a footpath or a safe and suitable
location for stops. So once that part of the development is complete we'll revisit
with another feasibility study about installing stops there but
I don't have anything further on the 315 but
I'm happy to take any questions.
Yeah this goes through my ward but I don't have any particular questions on it.
Okay, agenda item 6b bus quality of service indicators.
Now, Malcolm. Well, it's kind of me and the speech I've
off given at this meeting is the quality of service indicators that you get are not indicative
of what is actually happening at the moment. They're a bit behind and I find them unfathomable
because we get them in a different format. So, pretty much all of our routes in the Wandsworth
area are operating as they should be above and beyond even the 85 because I've just looked that
up since I'm still at work I did look it up the 85 has done a lot better over the last few weeks
last few months sorry than it has done previously
but other than that that is not much to report to be quite honest I think my colleagues that
go ahead might be in the top ten of that lot rather than myself for a change then.
Thank you very much. Putney Bus Services? That was one of them. I've only got two that
are there which is the 85 at one end which has been described as the poster
boy for curtailments. That's operating a lot better and my other one is the 220
the only news I have of the 220 is that the contract has been re -awarded to us
and we are going to shift garages with it so it will no longer operate from
Wilsden Junction it will operate from Stanford Brook which is basically the
Hammersmith area which did improve the quality of that service as well. Thank
you very much. Does that cover Upper Richmond Road? I'm afraid Councillor I've got nothing
up there. I think that was a David Tiddley introduction
Chair. Go for it David.
Yeah actually that was something I'd asked James to report on but I wanted to pick up
on the bus quality indicators, a couple of things that struck me.
Particularly on the low frequency routes, these might not be ones run by Malcolm,
but the 424 Putney to Fulham, just looking at it, 63 % of busses are on time,
22 % are five to 15 minutes late.
So I'm not sure, I don't think that's one of Malcolm's services, but it's clearly one
that we need to pick up why that's performing so poorly.
The low frequency routes generally do, because they run every 15 minutes or every 10 minutes,
every 20 minutes.
It only takes one to be out of sync, if you like, so sort of the data for them does often
look relatively poor compared to some of the higher frequency routes but nevertheless the
424 looks to have a particular issue.
And then the other one which struck me was the 690 which is a school bus that serves
Burntwood if I remember right because that's down to 33 % on time and 30 % up to 15 minutes
late so only, I think it's only served by a couple of school busses every day but it
looks like those are really poor. I just imagine that the school children are getting to school
on other busses and not actually using the school bus as much as they possibly could
or should. Again, it's something that I probably need to just take away and get some advice
from Transport for London on why that one is performing so poorly. Those are the couple
I just wanted to mention.
David, just to jump in, I think the 690 isn't one of my routes, but as I believe it, I think
it only has two busses on it.
That's right.
So, one bus is five minutes late.
That's 50%.
That's 50 % on time.
Yeah, I take that point, Malcolm.
I just think that if you're running two busses to a school every morning, they should be
on time, shouldn't they?
If that's all you're going to do all day with one service, I think we should agree.
expect them to be running on time. All mine are, David. I'll take that away David on those
particular two services and have a look into that and come back to you.
Yeah just a quick one on the G1 bus which I think we continue to get quite a lot of
messages on. This may not be the, this is about punctuality as opposed to service regularity
but it would just be great at some point if we could get a bit of an update on, I think,
quite a lot of the local pushes on this to reinstate the four busses an hour from the
three an hour that it was taken down to. And I also note that it still seems to have quite a lot of
delays on that route. I think it's one of the ones that's particularly emotive because the G1,
I have taken it on a number of occasions by accident, trying to get back to Tooting and
have realised what a strange route it takes, but also as a result of that, completed also
of valuable role it plays in terms of connecting quite a lot of parts of the the borough from
Northcote through to Ballum down to um to Tooting with St George's Hospital so I think improving the
the the reliability of that service but also trying to get that back up to four an hour from three
is something residents would certainly like to see.
Also in terms of the G1, I know that the um the uh reduction was actually designed to obviously try
improve the reliability so it's a shame to hear that's obviously still an issue. I'll take that
feedback back to the bus planning team and the performance team as well to see if there's
anything they can do to further improve that for everybody so apologies for that. Thank you.
Councillor Yates. Yeah thank you I was also was going to ask about the G1 and yeah please can
have it on the agenda for the next meeting. Thank you.
David Tiddley. I was just picking up on a press release from,
let me see, September the 23rd, so two days ago. Transport for London has announced a
purchase of 13 zero emission busses to be used on the G1. So I had understood that the G1
will be transitioning to electric pretty shortly and for a bus that links lots of
places and has a long old route it's probably quite you know highly desirable
that it should turn to electrification. That says I'm mindful it it goes it can
struggle to get through some of the narrower roads with parking on both
sides and the electric busses are a little bit bigger so I have asked
Transport for London to try and ensure that they you know do do a route test
with it. Don't just assume that you can replace a single deck with an electric on roads like
Broomwood Road, for example, where we have had some challenges in the past. So,
but good news generally, I think.
Okay, any other comments or questions on the busses?
No? Okay, that brings us to agenda item seven, which is any other business. So, does anyone
have any other business they would like to raise? No? In which case, I know that Mr.
Flowers is just working on finalising the dates for the next meeting. If he has asked
availability, please do go back when you can and apart from that I think that concludes the business
of the meeting. Thank you very much. Okay, that cool. Thanks everyone. Have a nice evening.