Arsenal 'failing its Tube fans'

Emirates: Report criticises Arsenal for failing to improve transport links

Arsenal's failure to fund improvements to the Tube and train network for fans travelling to the Emirates stadium is criticised in an official report today.

It says the Gunners' approach is in "stark contrast" to the situation at the new Wembley, where stadium owners the Football Association contributed £ 9million towards the £100 million upgrade of three stations.

The London Assembly report points out that Arsenal's matchday income has doubled to £3.1 million compared with the take at its former home at Highbury, and it spends £83 million on its footballers' wages.

As part of the planning permission, the club was to contribute nearly £8 million towards improvements to Holloway Road Tube and Drayton Park train stations. But the Tube station is closed to fans on matchdays on safety grounds, while Drayton Park has no late-night or weekend services - causing delays of up to an hour as fans leave the 60,000-seat stadium.

The report says this is because it would cost £60 million to upgrade Holloway Road and about £8 million to improve Drayton Park, but other sources of funding cannot be found. As a result, Arsenal's money remains unspent.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT