Ashburton Grove Stadium

Arsenal FC have built a new stadium at Ashburton Grove, Highbury (the Emirates Stadium), requiring improvements to the public transport network surrounding it.

Ashburton Grove stadium is located between the Great Northern line between Finsbury Park and King's Cross, and the Great Northern City line between Finsbury Park and Drayton Park, just to the south of where they cross.

The new stadium is close to Holloway Road Piccadilly line station as well as Arsenal Piccadilly line station, but an increased stadium capacity (up to 60,000 from 38,500) means more pressure on the local transport network. £7.9m of funding has been provided for mitigation measures.

This is the nearest Tube station, however the stop would be far too expensive to upgrade to take the necessary crowds on matchdays. As a result, the station will be closed at times of high stress just before and just after matches.

This station handled the crowds at the old stadium. The station was already close to capacity, and like Holloway Road, upgrading would be expensive.

These stations, with a bigger range of rail services, will be the main destinations for stadium users. Between these stations and Arsenal, there should be enough public transport capacity for the new stadium.

Although it is very close to the new stadium, it is too cramped to be of use for matchday crowds.

£7.5m for improvements to Holloway Road station will no longer be available after a deal between TfL and Arsenal fell through. It was originally intended that the Piccadilly line station, the closest to the new Arsenal stadium at Ashburton Grove, would receive an upgrade to handle the increased volume of passengers to matches at the new stadium next season. Station improvements will now not go head until 2010.

Concerns have been raised over transport arrangements for fans travelling to Arsenal's new football stadium at Ashburton Grove. The nearest Tube station (Holloway Road) is unable to cope with large crowds and would probably shut on match days, and the nearest rail station at Drayton Park would not open at weekends or in the late evenings.