Passengers' fury at Tube station closure

Thousands of passengers have protested at plans to close a busy Tube station for eight months to speed up its redevelopment for the benefit of a neighbouring shopping centre.

Labour MP Andy Slaughter says he has been inundated with complaints from Central line passengers about the closure of Shepherd's Bush station from midnight tonight.

He said there is also growing outrage that the refurbishment of the station - part of £170million of improvements funded by White City shopping centre developer Westfield - fail to include disabled access to the platforms, contrary to pledges from Ken Livingstone to help wheelchair users.

Work to enlarge the ticket hall by knocking down the 1908 station facade - built as part of that year's London Olympics at White City - and enlarge the ticket hall needs to be done by October when the shopping centre opens.

Originally Transport for London proposed to do this while keeping open the station, which is used by 22,000 people a day. But after pressure from Westfield, and fears that the refit was months behind schedule following the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet, it agreed to close the station to speed up the work.

TfL has also brought forward by four years plans to replace the station's two ageing escalators.

Mr Slaughter estimates that about 7,000 people have written to him or signed petitions about the closure, which they want postponed until other transport improvements are in place. These include a new overground station beside the shopping centre, a new Tube station in Wood Lane and two bus stations.

The MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, said: "My constituents are more concerned about having a station than Westfield's enhanced profits."

Richard Parry, London Underground's strategy director, said: "We have reluctantly agreed to close this station for eight months because it means the works can be accelerated."

A TfL spokeswoman said there were "still plans" to install lifts, but the work presented "engineering challenges".