On Tue, 2 Oct 2007 12:31:37 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Tue, 2 Oct 2007, Mwmbwls wrote:

On 2 Oct, 07:30, wrote:

"London TravelWatch considers that this should be done as soon as
possible, and we understand that S106 money may be obtainable as a
contribution to such a scheme."

S106 = Arsenal pays.

It is also clearly absurd not to provide enhanced facilities at Drayton
Park for travelling supporters, especially given the huge expanse of
derelict land (the former LT depot) by the station. But don't expect
AFC to pay - why should they?-

The section 106 issue concerning Arsenal's contribution has already
been fixed when planning permission was granted.

But i think the money has already been spent on improvements to Finsbury
Park and Highbury & Islington. Although i don't know if all of it has been
spent - enough was agreed for improvements to Holloway Road, and that
would have been a lot, more than has been spent at FP and H&I, i think, so
that might still be available.

limited knowledge mode

Err no money has been spent at Highbury - at least not to my eyes and I
use the station on a weekly basis. The work at Finsbury Park was on the
station place bus station which I believe is all TfL funded as was the
traffic rerouting and traffic lights. More work is scheduled at FP to
open up some circulation space and install MIP lifts. This is being
combined with the PPP contracted works into one overall scheme. I think
ticket gates get put in as part of the scheme - it's a fair while since
I've seen the plans.

Nothing is being taken forward at Holloway Road as no scheme was found
to be feasible after a lot of planning work. The next work at HR will
be the PPP modernisation work but nothing on capacity works.

I don't think Arsenal have paid out anything of any great substance
despite the conditions that were set but I might be wrong on that.

Also, as you quote:

At least £500,000 will be spent on station improvements, and if it
proves viable to extend train services later in the evenings and on
weekends, then up to £2million will be made available.

It sounds like some of the money is contingent on improvements in service,
so it couldn't have been touched by the FP and H&I works.

I think there is theoretically a lot of money still sloshing around
given the lack of any substantive scheme to provide enough capacity. The
big problem is that Arsenal's contribution is far too small to fully
fund the scale of works needed at LU locations given they are all
subsurface and therefore very costly. Something on the surface at
Drayton Park might well be more feasible and more affordable but perhaps
not good value for money overall given the low non football usage of the
station (linked to the poor overall service!).
--
Paul C