An artist's impression of proposed improvements to Twickenham Station
Fear that Twickenham station may not be able to handle the vast rugby crowds in 2015 is growing, but Network Rail assure locals that work is underway
Locals have long been concerned that hosting the Rugby World Cup (RWC) in 2015 will lead to mass overcrowding at Twickenham station.
Of the 600,000 fans who will come from all over the world to Twickenham stadium, the vast majority will arrive by train. But whilst London invested heavily in infrastructure for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, with state of the art transport links and improved stations in and around the Olympic Park, Twickenham station has yet to see any such improvements.
The St Margaret's and North Twickenham Conservative party have warned that Twickenham station already struggles to cope with demands on match days, and is unsuited for managing large numbers of users at these times.
Last year saw the party create a petition that called on Network Rail, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Transport, Richmond upon Thames Council, the Mayor of London and South West Trains to work with the RFU to help deliver significant improvements to Twickenham station in time for the RWC.
"As the third largest sporting event in the world, [the RWC] deserves to have the best facilities that London and England has to offer" said the Conservatives. "Twickenham station struggles to cope with match-day crowds, despite the best efforts of the station staff... [and] needs dramatic improvements to ensure that fans from around the world can easily and quickly get to and from Twickenham."
A South West Trains employee, who wished to remain unnamed, backed the claims and warned that 'it would be chaos' if something was not done.
"Twickenham station works on a day to day basis, but it was never made for large crowds" he said. "There are works going on at the moment, but they aren’t major enough, and won’t make much of a difference. Most of the works at Twickenham station won’t take place until after the RWC anyway. Something needs to be done, otherwise a lot of local people and rugby fans could find themselves in trouble."
When asked if improvements for Twickenham station were planned or underway, Network Rail assured The Richmond Magazine that work had begun in May and was ‘well underway.’
The Network Rail and South West Trains Alliance has pledged to deliver £5.2m of improvements in time for the RWC, including step-free access between the ticket office and platforms, new accessible toilets and improvements to the existing toilets, resurfaced platforms, new lighting and a new footbridge to replace the existing concrete structure.
At the time of writing, a petition created by the local Conservative party that calls for urgent improvements at Twickenham station had received 3,783 signatures.
