Arsenal stadium hit by travel chaos

Arsenal fans will face transport chaos when the club's new 60,000-seat stadium opens next year.

The nearest train station to the £357million Emirates stadium will be closed on match days, while Tubes may not stop at the closest Underground station.

This is in spite of a promise that both Drayton Park station and Holloway Road Tube would be upgraded with £7.5 million from the club.

Fans will be redirected half a mile down busy Holloway Road, which Islington council admits could cause traffic chaos, or a mile north to Finsbury Park. Anti-stadium campaigners say the failure to improve Holloway Road Tube before the stadium opens in August next year will be a nightmare for the community.

An extra 5,000 residents are expected to move into 2,500 homes being built by the club, while the number of fans will rise 58 per cent on Highbury's 38,000 capacity. Alison Carmichael, of the Islington Stadium Communities Alliance, said: "It's going to cause serious disruption for families and commercial life, and the traffic on the Holloway Road."

Problems emerged in a written answer from London transport commissioner Bob Kiley to Jennette Arnold, London Assembly member for the area.

Mr Kiley revealed that discussions on increasing capacity at Holloway Road Tube had been suspended after it was found "any scheme" at the deeplevelstation would be "extremely expensive". He said the layout made it "impossible" to operate with heavy football traffic. Increasing the capacity at Finsbury Park and Highbury and Islington Tube stations was being considered instead.

Holloway Road station is set to become exit-only on match days, with Piccadilly line trains continuing north to Arsenal or Finsbury Park stations if overcrowding occurs. TfL does not plan to increase capacity at Holloway Road until 2007 at the earliest.

Train operator WAGN has, meanwhile, confirmed that no trains will stop at Drayton Park at weekends, while services will not run late enough to take fans home midweek.

This scuppers the council's hope that a quarter of fans leaving by Tube or train would use the station, ensuring that no more than 20 per cent of people drove to the new ground.

TfL board member Susan Kramer said: "I shall be raising this with Bob Kiley. It appears TfL have failed to deliver their agreement with Arsenal and Islington council."

But Islington council leader Steve Hitchins said the delay was a "minor setback" and would not affect the stadium opening. A TfL spokesman said "robust plans" were in place to deal with the increased number of fans.