London Underground have said that Holloway Tube station could not cope as it is now. They have rejected Arsenal's suggestion to close the station on match days, and countered by suggesting that Arsenal help to bring all the surrounding stations up to scratch. Islington council have formally requested that Arsenal helps with the rebuilding of Holloway station in particular, and Arsenal are said to be considering this. There are suggestions that capacity might have to be limited until the tube system is improved.

I suppose this could work in Arsenal's favour, as the tube system could do with all the money it can get for improvements of any kind!

Meanwhile the Transport Police and Fire Service are concerned about exit routes. There do seem to be some strange assumptions in Arsenal's projections. As the Police Superintendent has said, "I would question the remarks in the proposal suggesting that the majority of supporters are in the ground an hour before kick-off. .. supporters prefer to drink locally entering the ground at the last minute. "

This is, of course, true. But there's still no reason to worry too much. There's simply no need to have the kind of congestion one gets at old-fashioned turnstiles. At modern stadia people get in and out much more easily.

Arsenal are not hiding from the problems, and have accepted that changes will have to be made to their plans before it is implemented.

Info from Construction News, via ArseWeb reader Simon Cadde.