The Scoop

Evening Standard newsdesk in new CHAOS shock

Darryl Chamberlain | Friday 1 April, 2011 16:11

Less than two years after it plastered London with posters saying sorry for becoming a nasty, shrill, hysterical and generally out-of-touch newspaper, is the Evening Standard slipping back into its tired old ways?

Today’s story about the closure of the Northern Line platforms at Tottenham Court Road station is a classic case of London’s only evening newspaper getting its knickers in a twist over a minor difficulty on the Tube.

Chaos on the Tube: Eight months of disruption on the Northern line, the freesheet bellows, despite the fact that the trains will still run as normal – and alternative stations are only a few minutes’ walk away.

In fact, the paper suggests Londoners would rather the station stayed a decrepit mess.

A survey for the Evening Standard revealed that many passengers do not believe disruption is “inevitable” while upgrade work is taking place.

The ComRes survey shows that although many commuters are prepared to bear the pain during the upgrade, 19 per cent said they believed the turmoil was avoidable.

Yes, a whole 19 per cent of people believe Tube stations should be rebuilt by magic pixies who do the work in the dead of night.

Anyhow, for those who don’t believe walking five minutes constitutes “turmoil”, the work is to expand the cramped existing ticket hall, add new entrances and add a new ticket hall at Dean Street.

Much of this work is prompted by the arrival of Crossrail – which will provide a whole new railway line for the Standard to moan about when it opens in 2018.

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