The Muggles Can Walk

Watch out for the appearance of the politician's favourite station in the next Harry Potter film:

Geoff Pope: Why did London Underground consider it acceptable on Sunday 22 October 2006, to inconvenience thousands of passengers for reasons that do not relate to the maintenance or improvement of the Tube on a weekend when a number of sections of central London Tube lines were already closed?

Ken Livingstone: Although Westminster is a major station, it is relatively quiet on Sundays. There are many bus and Tube alternatives nearby, and all alternative routes were operating normally. This meant that relatively few passengers were inconvenienced. LU received very few complaints and there were no problems on the day.

LU looked at all options for filming. Given the close proximity of various alternative operating routes, and the potential safety issues around keeping the station open during such high profile filming, it was decided that the best option was to close the station.

High profile filming brings many benefits to London, as the Assembly itself points out in its recent report 'Film Friendly London'.

Let's hope that Harry Potter doesn't influence TfL more widely - London isn't ready for flying cars and triple decker buses.