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Station upgrade was not stopped by businesses
• I NOTE with interest Frank Dobson’s article on the overcrowding of Camden Town Tube station (Town Hall must act now to make station safe and fit for purpose, July 9).
We at CTU have always supported the station upgrade even though it has not always been popular.
I quite agree with Mr Dobson’s contention that the expected influx of tourists in the run to the Olympics, given that Camden Town is Europe’s largest young person visitor destination, is likely to put intolerable pressure on an already overstretched station.
The only point I take issue with is that businesses should asked to pay.
Mr Dobson may not be aware that from next April, as well as coping with the effects of recession and the likely 3 per cent rise in business rates, businesses across London will be forced to pay an additional 2 per cent levy to pay for Crossrail.
It is a sad truth that as businesses do not have a vote it is always easier to demand that they pay for things disproportionately. But that does not make it fair or timely to suggest business picks up yet more cost when the tax on business is already expanding so rapidly. Especially when it was not business that put a stop to the proposed upgrade, that would now be underway had it not been stopped in its tracks, some three years ago.
Simon Pitkeathley
Chief Executive
Camden Town Unlimited
Do people have to die?
• WHILE millions of pounds are being funneled into the transport systems of the new Olympic village, why can’t cash be cobbled together to renovate and repair Camden Tube station, one of the busiest and most popular destinations in the capital?
It’s a safety issue above anything else, as Frank Dobson states (Town Hall must act now to make station safe and fit for purpose,
July 9).
Do people have to die first?
Name and Address supplied
Primrose Hill solution
• COMMENTS concerning the unsafe overcrowding of Camden Town Tube station underline just why the wanton destruction of Primrose Hill station was such an anti-social act.
Has anyone ever got to the bottom of the reason for this vandalism?
Surely someone at Network Rail must have considered the potential in operating and advertising weekend/ evening extra services. Extra rail fares recouped from passengers to and fro the Roundhouse end of Chalk Farm Road should not have been sniffed at.
Also one is surprised that Camden Council, the Roundhouse big-wigs, hotel PRs and other traders near the Primrose Hill station did not fiercely campaign for this convenient facility to be reopened. Where was the London Tourist Board?
Where was Transport for London? Both ought to have spotted the opportunity. How frustrating it is to know that people in highly-paid posts cannot see the obvious.
There is every reason rapidly to build another station entrance serving the still-live Primrose Hill track connection, with tourists being directed straight from other Network Rail stations to the hotels near Camden Lock.
JUNE GIBSON, NW11
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