After seven years campaigning for a lift at one of Barnet’s busiest stations, Sara Sherrard is asking the Mill Hill community to support the next stage of the fight, Leïla Davaud reports

Two passengers climbing the stairs to enter Mill Hill Broadway Station — The stairs at Mill Hill Broadway Station – (Credit – Leïla Davaud)

“My mother lay at the bottom of the station stairs for an hour, until she died.”

Sitting down at a table in a busy local café, Sara Sherrard recounts the day her life pivoted: “On November 27th 2018, mum was coming back from Guy’s hospital, where she was receiving treatment for leukaemia. She was on her way to finally go to bed and rest. Instead, she tripped and fell down Mill Hill Broadway Station’s stairs, the only available exit. It was her only way home and she never made it there.”

As she shares her story, people come and go from the front door. Sara watches an elderly couple ordering a coffee, mothers parking their prams by the counter. “Her death pushed me to fight for other members of my community to have a right to use public transport without risking their lives. I’m saying: ‘never again’, nobody should die like this or even be hurt simply trying to use public transport. Even going up and down the stairs with a suitcase is a risk, imagine with limited mobility or a young child.”

For the past seven years, Sara and her “little army” of volunteers have been campaigning for a lift to be installed at Mill Hill Broadway. She says: “At the time, the step-free access campaign had just been submitted to the government. We thought mum’s story could help the Mill Hill line to get funding from the Department for Transport’s Access for All programme. It was granted in 2019 with a delivery deadline in 2024 but Network Rail did not do the work.”

Sara believes this lack of action may be because the project proved more expensive than initially expected. The charity worker feels “let down” and points out a “political football between parties and institutions that did not help”.

In November 2025, things finally appeared to be going in a positive direction as Network Rail informed Mill Hill’s Conservative councillors that work on new lifts was expected to start in the new year.

“However, it was quite the misunderstanding,” Sara explains. “What would start, and be completed by the summer, is the Approval In Principle (AIP) design phase. A document intended to provide data about how the station is used and how to make it more practical, safe and finally how much it will cost. Then, Network Rail will need to find the money quickly so the construction can begin. It is a start, but the station will not be step-free anytime soon.”

Responding to Barnet Post‘s questions on the confusion in November, a Network Rail spokesperson said: “We understand how important accessibility at Mill Hill Broadway station is for passengers and the community. Funding has been securedfor the Approval in Principle design stage for step free access.

“The contract for these design works will be awarded shortly, with completion of the AIP designs expected by summer 2026. We remain committed to working with industry partners in seeking further funding for subsequent stages of the project, including detailed design and construction.”

In order to keep up the pressure, Sara is asking the Mill Hill community to support her campaign: “I need businesses and organisations to help me buy leaflets, signs and banners.”

During a campaign day outside the station last November, Sara says hundreds of leaflets were handed out, resulting in a wave of residents signing up via a QR code to contact the Department for Transport. “The more people who are aware of the situation and willing to push them for action, the more chances we all have to use the station safely.”

Alongside her lengthy ongoing battle for step free access, Sara had some success in getting Thameslink, the rail operator that manages the station to improve its safety guidelines in response to issues raised at the inquest into her mother’s death. Sara says: “We learnt that not only had her previous fall not been recorded, but that on the second and deadly fall, the access to the station was not blocked, even though people were jumping over her to catch their train, giving her no dignity in her last moments.

“I made it my project to make sure guidelines would be created with the Rail Safety Standards Board. These guidelines are now meant to be national industry standards.”

In order to complete this work, though, Sara is determined to see Network Rail finally fulfil its pledge to make the station safely accessible for all. She says: “Accidents happen but the problem is that there are options and funding to make the station better. We’re not asking for the prettiest lift ever made, just something safe.”

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