Overground services must improve, mayors and MPs demand
The mayors and MPs for Hackney and Tower Hamlets have written to Transport for London Commissioner Mike Brown to demand that Overground services at Hackney stations improve, after increasing reports from local people of delays and cancellations that make it harder for them to get around.
Trains are also reported to be missing Hackney stations during peak times, as part of a new Overground practice that effectively creates a ‘fast train’ to Stratford but leaves people in Hackney waiting on platforms.
Many Hackney and Tower Hamlets residents have said that, after missing stations in the borough, trains often wait outside Stratford, negating any time saved.
The recent delays are making overcrowding worse at Hackney Central too, an issue that Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, has previously raised with TfL.
So far, TfL and Arriva have not made recent service statistics public, despite calls from Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch.
Local mayors and MPs are now renewing this demand and asking for reassurances that TfL is working to end the disruption.
With our residents having faced cuts to their vital bus services it is more important than ever that they can rely on the Overground to get around the borough, get to work, and get home safely. Instead they have experienced cancellations, delays and services skipping stations like Hackney Wick. The ongoing disruption to the Overground in our boroughs is completely unacceptable and we demand that TfL take action.
Many residents in Tower Hamlets rely on the Overground to get around and we need to ensure that this vital connection through East London is delivering a functioning service for people who live in the work in this creative and economic hub.
View a copy of the letter to Mike Brown, which is co-signed by John Biggs, Philip Glanville, Meg Hillier MP, Diane Abbott MP, Jim Fitzpatrick MP and Rushanara Ali MP, in the downloads sidebar.