Wimbledon’s chief executive will demand investment in the District line after disruption continued into the second week of the world-famous tennis championships.
Tennis fans have been left facing lengthy delays and have had to cram into tightly packed Tube carriages during the hot weather as a range of issues plagued the busy line last week.
Thousands of spectators were also left stranded after Transport for London (TfL) announced there was no service between Parsons Green and Wimbledon on Monday, forcing fans to take an alternative route.
The District line was again hit by severe delays during rush hour on Tuesday, with a faulty train at Edgware Road also preventing services from reaching High Street Kensington.
Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, said the club would be meeting TfL bosses at the end of the championships to assess the service provided.
“We’re working with them all year,” she told reporters. “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.
“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.”
Tuesday morning’s disruption took place just hours before TfL’s Chief Operating Officer Claire Mann was due to meet with officials from Network Rail to discuss the ongoing issues.
District line services were brought to a complete standstill between Tower Hill and Whitechapel on Thursday morning, forcing fans to take lengthy diversions as they tried to reach Wimbledon.
Matters were made worse when severe delays hit the rest of the District line, including on trains to Southfields station, the closest station to the tournament.
At least 14,000 people are understood to use Southfields station to get to the championships.
A quarter of planned District line services were unable to run to the championships on the first two days of the tournament, following signal failures and a small fire on the track at Southfields, Network Rail said.
Wimbledon MP Paul Kohler described the disruption as “a huge embarrassment in the middle of the championships, during one of the Crown Jewels of British sport”.
The Liberal Democrat has written to TfL Commissioner Andy Lord about the issues and has said the District line should be upgraded as a priority since parts of the track running between East Putney and Wimbledon are 130 years old.
The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan is understood to have been left “extremely frustrated” by the disruption.
A spokesperson for the Mayor described how the recent disruption fell well below the standard Londoners and visitors expect and deserve, explaining City Hall has written to Network Rail asking them to work constructively with TfL to solve the disruption as soon as possible.
The Mayor’s spokesperson urged for work to take place to ensure there are no repeated signal failures in the future.
