Sadiq Khan has been told to ‘get a grip’ as chaos on the only Tube line to Wimbledon continues into a second week.
Delays and cancellations on the District Line have left fans struggling to reach the tournament, prompting embarrassing scenes of overcrowded trains and gridlocked stations.
The issues have been blamed on signalling failures, which cause signals to default to red – reducing the number of trains that can pass through and sometimes blocking them entirely.
Wimbledon MP Paul Kohler has been among those urging the Major of London to take urgent action to sort out the mess.
He said: ‘If the infrastructure is 130 years old, it should be a priority, and Sadiq [Khan] needs to get a grip. He really does. It’s just shocking.’
Susan Hall, the leader of the Conservatives in City Hall, said the Mayor was failing to ‘prioritise’ Wimbledon despite it being one of Britain’s most important sporting events.
‘If you’re responsible for the transport system, at the top of your list should be ensuring high profile events are enable through proper public transport facilities,’ she told MailOnline.
‘I’ve never particularly heard him comment on anything but Liverpool, which is his football team. But many of us also enjoy Wimbledon and it’s unacceptable that people are spending a fortune on tickets only to have to face these delays. It’s unbelievable.
‘These are two weeks a year where the whole world watches what we do and people pay a fortune and look forward all year to the prospect of going. The Mayor should have made sure that he had a Plan B in case of any disruption.’
Wimbledon bosses are demanding crisis talks with Transport for London (TfL) after some fans were so delayed they ended up missing matches.
Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, said the club had been working with TfL ‘all year’ to avoid such scenes.
‘We have been, and remain, clear with them that delivering an event of this scale in this part of London requires the infrastructure in this part of London to support us in doing that,’ she said.
‘They’re very aware of that view, and we have arranged to catch up with them after the championships to look at not just what happened this year but also to look ahead in terms of investment into the District line.’
Susan Hall was more forthright, telling MailOnline: ‘It’s unbelievable. These are two weeks a year where the whole world watches what we do.
‘People pay a fortune and look forward all year to the prospect of going. The Mayor should have made sure that he had a Plan B in case of any disruption.’
Severe delays this morning were caused by a ‘casualty on the track’. While this incident could clearly not have been foreseen by TfL, it follows days of disruption caused by the signalling issues.
Yesterday saw no service on the District Line between Parsons Green and Wimbledon.
Many arrived at SW19 complaining their journeys had taken as long as three hours after being forced to catch buses, pay for taxis or even walk.
The under-fire mayor said he was ‘extremely frustrated’ by the latest disruption during the event which attracts more than 42,000 spectators every day.
TfL apologised to ‘customers affected by the disruption on the District Line’ which it said was due to a ‘track fault at Putney Bridge’.
Sir Sadiq has been repeatedly criticised over his handling of the Tube, and has even been accused of avoiding cleaning up graffiti in carriages to try to get more money from central Government.
Sources at TfL reportedly claimed that the graffiti-covered carriages on London’s Bakerloo line are assisting the London Mayor with his goal of receiving a multi-million pound Government handout for new trains.
Speaking of Sir Sadiq’s alleged deliberate avoidance of the vandalism, an insider is said to have told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Anything that helps make the case for new trains is going to be helpful.
‘We would rather the graffiti wasn’t happening, obviously. But if this is going to help, we want to replace them and need we need money from the Government to do it’.
The reports came in the wake of videos showing fed-up commuters taking matters in their own hands and cleaning up the graffiti.
Joe Reeve, 28, founder of policy group Looking for Growth, led the clean up effort, insisted he was ‘doing what Sadiq Khant’ after TfL reported a ‘significant increase’ in the number of graffiti incidents on its trains.
The London Mayor is currently lobbying the Government to fund a replacement of the Bakerloo Line’s 1970s rolling stock with new trains.
Sir Sadiq, chair of TfL, has also called for an extension of the line to Lewisham, south-east London.
However, concerns have been raised about a lack of funds for the historic line – with its extension and reconstruction previously estimated at a cost of between £5million and £8million.
However, a TFL spokesperson said that it was ‘completely untrue to suggest that any graffiti is left for longer than necessary for any reason’.
In 2021, Sir Sadiq released a set of throwback images showing the sorry state of the tube network in previous decades, warning that without urgent Government investment the transport network could see significant cuts.
A spokesperson for TfL said that the body are ‘removing graffiti from the Tube network as fast as possible’.
They added: ‘We have deployed an accelerated cleaning programme in response to the specific increase in graffiti on the Central and Bakerloo lines.
‘Teams are removing graffiti 24/7, and are currently removing more than 1,000 tags per week on the Bakerloo line and more than 2,000 on the Central line.’
