Disability campaign groups urge London mayor to take “bold action” in improving access across capital’s transport network, reports Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

A group of friends on a night out using the night tube service — credit TfL

Sir Sadiq Khan has admitted it will “never be the case” that every tube station in London will have step-free access.

The mayor suggested this was due to the Victorian design of some of them, which makes retrofitting lifts either impossible or extremely expensive.

The issue was raised at Mayor’s Question Time earlier this month by Andrew Boff, a Tory member of the London Assembly, after he asked why Highgate Station still doesn’t have a lift, “bearing in mind its poor record of escalator breakdowns and its inaccessibility for people using wheelchairs”.

Sir Sadiq said he would look into Highgate’s particular circumstances, but explained there is a set of criteria which is followed when deciding whether to invest in step-free access at stations.

All 180 stations without step-free access have been assessed by TfL against this criteria, including how deep the station is and the minimum number of lifts required. City Hall says this has allowed TfL to prioritise the stations that would benefit most from step-free access being added.

Addressing the issue of accessibility across the network in general however, the mayor went on to say: “The target is for us to go from [the current position of] a third of our underground stations being step-free, to half by the end of this decade.

“In addition to the underground leading the way – we’ve got the overground, [with] 60% of the stations there being step-free, all the tram stations being step-free, all 41 Elizabeth Line stations being step-free, [and] 95% of our bus stops being step-free as well.”

But asked by the assembly member when Londoners can expect the rest of the capital’s stations to have step-free access, the mayor replied: “That will depend on capital money [available to TfL].

“He [Boff] will be aware that many of these stations are Victorian stations that require a considerable amount of money to be changed.

“The stations where it’s easier to be made step-free, if the criteria is met – for example passenger numbers, an interchange for example, developer money, third party money – clearly they can take place sooner rather than later.

“It will never be the case, by the way, that all of our 272 underground stations will be step-free.”

Asked about the mayor’s comments, City Hall sources pointed out that some of ‘deep-level’ tube stations – which include stops on the Bakerloo, Central, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines – are situated in locations where access at street-level for a construction site is “very limited”. At a small number of others, due to the specifics of the station’s layout and surrounding environment, installing lifts is not “practically possible”, they added.

Responding to Sir Sadiq’s remarks, disability campaigners stressed the need for “bold action” to enable all Londoners to “travel freely”.

“London should be open to all, but our capital city simply isn’t accessible to London’s 1.2 million disabled residents,” said Caroline Stickland, chief executive of the Transport for All campaigning organisation.

“Fifteen years on from the Equality Act we should all be able to travel freely, safely and with dignity, but disabled Londoners are still blocked from parts of our city by a range of barriers, from stations without step-free access, to uneven, cracked and narrow pavements. We want to see bold action to tackle these, so that everyone in London can get around.”

A spokesperson for the group Inclusion London added: “While there are unique difficulties with retrofitting step-free access to older stations, disabled campaigners are still having to fight to make new stations and lines accessible too.

“The original Elizabeth Line plans included no lifts or step-free access to seven stations, but disabled campaigners eventually managed to secure some degree of step-free access to all 41 stations on the line. However, ramps are still required at 31 of these, baking in unnecessary wait times and reliance on assistance from staff.

“We all just want to get where we’re going, without worrying about whether a ramp will appear when we need it, so the move towards level boarding can’t come soon enough.”

A spokesperson for Khan this week said: “Since Sadiq became mayor, he has increased the number of step-free stations across London by 20 per cent, meaning there are now more than 200 on TfL’s network.

“In July, TfL outlined a further ten London Underground stations it will be reviewing for potential step-free access, as it progresses plans to further improve public transport accessibility in London.”

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