Trains Not Serving West Ealing Station Due To Safety Concerns
Adjacent demolition work on Manor Road development being blamed
A sign notifying passengers (left) and the wall showing cracks. Picture: Stop The Towers
West Ealing station is no longer serving passengers into London due to concerns about the safety of a retaining wall.
Cracks have appeared resulting in trains to Paddington being suspended.
A Network Rail spokesperson said, “Eastbound TfL Rail trains are not able to stop at West Ealing until the weekend due to an unstable wall on the station boundary. Safety is our priority and urgent work to the wall is needed before the Eastbound platform can reopen.
“We are sorry for the disruption this is causing and advise passengers at West Ealing travelling Eastbound to board the next Westbound service and change at Southalll. Passengers for West Ealing from stations in the west should travel to Ealing Broadway and change for a Westbound service.”
It is being claimed that the retaining wall has come under pressure due to demolition work in preparation for the development of a 22 storey building next to the station. Debris from the demolition of smaller structures on the side is reported to have been piled up against the wall. The problems at the station come just 8 days after work started at the site.
A spokesperson for Stop The Towers group (STT) spoke to engineers from both Balfour Beatty and Network Rail on the site who have expressed concerns about the project. Co Chair Denise Colliver quoted an unnamed engineer as saying that he was amazed the 22 storey tower got planning permission, adding “it’s a potentially horrendous situation we have to deal with”.
We have contacted both Balfour Beatty and Network Rail for a statement.
STT has questioned whether Southern Grove or their partners, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing have fulfilled their legal obligation to submit a Demolition Plan and/or a Construction Management Plan. These documents have not been logged on the council’s planning portal.
We have contacted Southern Grove and Ealing Council requesting clarification of this point.
Co Chair of STT Justine Sullivan said, “From day one we said building a 22 storey tower so close to the railway and station was dangerous. The arrogance of the developers is breath-taking. But blame must lie firmly with Ealing Council who has spent the last 10 years flogging off every spare inch of land for greedy developers to build unneeded tower blocks of luxury flats and encouraging them to build higher. This is precisely why STT exists. The sheer arrogance and the greed of developers, the recklessness of the planning application and the lack of care from those on the planning committee who supported it – it is appalling. We’ve always known the site was unsuitable and now we’re in one of those ‘told you so’ moments.”
STTT posted on its Instagram account about the matter there was a response from the Southern Grove account which said, "Thanks for the mention it is called regeneration and progress". The post was later deleted.
James Murray MP wrote on Facebook, “As many people living near West Ealing will know, the eastbound platform at the station was closed this morning. This was the result of an ‘unsafe structure’ at the station - caused, almost certainly, by the building works for the Manor Road tower.
"After seeing the closure this morning, I spoke to TfL who confirmed this was the result of a potentially dangerous situation with the retaining wall. TfL said that after they were alerted last night, an inspector visited the site and decided that no trains would stop at West Ealing on the Paddington-bound line.
“I urged TfL to make sure the station can reopen safely as soon as possible. Once it is safe, I said they must then find out how this happened. If, as seems all but certain, this is the result of building works for the Manor Road tower, I said to TfL I want to see them take action against the developer.
"We must make sure the developer does not get away with causing this disruption and potential danger without penalty - and most importantly we need TfL to push them to make sure this does not happen again.”
Visualisation of Manor Road scheme from the developer
Trains towards Heathrow and Great Western Rail services to and from Greenford remain unaffected.
TfL has been approached for comment.
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March 17, 2022
