Locals near Highbury station are complaining about excessive noise from Victoria line trains.
Sem Moema is a Labour Assembly Member who said Highbury locals hear loud Victoria line trains. She claimed she also “couldn’t take” the noise.
Moema spoke at a City Hall meeting in February and worried about TfL’s Tube noise plans. She also thinks TfL doesn’t value resident feedback, and locals feel solving the noise is not urgent. Trust broke down between them and TfL.
Moema said the problem is getting worse, despite TfL’s attempts. She thinks it’s because Northern and Victoria line trains run more often. One person says trains pass every 40 seconds at peak times.
Moema wants noise solutions in TfL’s future budgets. Andy Lord leads TfL, and he says they take noise seriously. He adds that damaged steel tracks cause noise issues.
Lord called track noise a complex, technical problem and sympathizes with people affected by it. He will investigate the noise in Highbury and check if TfL fixes help residents. The Victoria line runs very often globally. Lord knows the noise impacts residents; they are testing new base plates on tracks, and he adds they fix rail grinding issues too.
Replacing deep Tube tracks takes a lot of time. They can only do it at night during a short four-hour slot, and closing a whole line has big effects.