The managing director of Crossrail 2 Michéle Dix has said she supports building a station at Tooting Broadway, but warned that ground conditions may make Balham the most feasible option.

Speaking during a visit to the Wandsworth Guardian offices on Wednesday, May 18, Ms Dix said that Tooting Broadway had always been the preferred option for a station, but that it was made far harder by the fact that Tooting lies on the Wimbledon fault lines.

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Ms Dix said: “It makes building a station there more difficult. Not not-doable, but more difficult.

“We have to weigh up the pros and cons against building one in Balham.

“We want to be totally in clay. As we go further south, there’s less clay. There’s a lot of water. When we get to a fault line and there’s different types of soil, it makes it more difficult for tunnelling.

“We want to be sure of our understanding of these fault lines. That’s the reason we drilled down from Tooting Broadway.”

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The ground investigation work, which has now finished, began in Tooting Broadway at the end of March with three boreholes being drilled around the area.

One was drilled in Blackenham Road on March 29, one in Graveney Road on April 5 and a final one drilled at Bickley Street on April 12. Each took two weeks to drill. The results of the investigation have not yet been revealed.

Ms Dix also commented on the ongoing controversy surrounding building a station in Balham, which would include demolishing the Waitrose site and placing a ventilation shaft on Wandsworth Common.

She said: “Unfortunately we have to take some land. We don’t want to take residential. People were upset we were taking Waitrose, and some were saying ‘take Sainsbury’s instead!’

“We don’t want to put a ventilation shaft on houses. We thought at the time we had located it in the least sensitive area.

“It’s always going to be sensitive because the Common is well loved, people don’t want disruption. They don’t want things there, but unless we can find a different way to ventilate tunnels that meet the requirements, if we go to Balham a ventilation shaft would be required. But all these things will be looked at.”

Ms Dix also stressed the importance of building new rail infrastructure that can support a dramatically expanding population in London, adding that south west London was one of the worst areas for overcrowded trains.

She added the next set of updated proposals, expected in the autumn, would take into account the concerns raised, but was reluctant to say what, if any, changes would be made.

She said: “We have to work out what the changes would mean before saying there’s an alternative, or there’s not an alternative. That’s why there’s a silence at the moment, because we want to be sure of what is feasible before we go back to the public.

“We want to ensure that alternatives work. We don’t want to shift the problem from one group to another.”