Southgate MP Stephen Twigg has blasted London Underground after enduring his own journey through hell on the Piccadilly Line.

The fuming MP, who uses the line to commute to the House of Commons, told how it took him an hour to travel from Finsbury Park to Bounds Green on a recent journey.

He told the Independent: "I was furious -- one hour to travel four stops. In the end I decided to get off at Bounds Green and walk home. It took another 40 minutes, but it was probably quicker than the train."

Now Mr Twigg is threatening to take the issue to the floor of the House of Commons unless services improve.

Earlier this year a survey of Piccadilly Line commuters carried out by the MP revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the service.

LU has admitted there is a problem at the northern end of the line as trains terminate at Oakwood, Arnos Grove and Cockfosters before turning round.

By filling up these stations at the turnaround these trains cause a bottleneck, with a backlog of following Tubes having to wait their turn.

In summer Mr Twigg met LU chief executive Dennis Tunnicliffe to voice commuters concerns -- but now he says promises that the service would be improved have not been met.

He said: "It's over six months now since I presented my dossier to LU. Then, it was suggested improvements were in the pipeline, yet now the service seems to be going from bad to worse.

"If they can't come back to me with real proposals for improvement and a proper timescale for implementing them I'll be raising the issue in the Commons."

A spokesman for LU insisted that improvements had been made -- but admitted the northern Piccadilly Line faces a long-term problem.

He said: "We have managed to make some improvements by regulating trains better along the whole line, but we realise there's a long way to go yet.

"We're putting greater effort into finding a longer-term solution to the bottleneck."

This effectively means adding extra platform faces at Oakwood and Arnos Grove so that more trains can use the station at the same time.

And this is a project which LU does not yet have sufficient funds to undertake.

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