Station Master App

Gloucester Road Closure

Not stopping at Gloucester Road

We spotted this last week, but forget to mention it .. so let’s mention it now – another ‘last minute’ closure that TfL have snuck up upon us (normally in the past there’s been a lot of notice on these things, but not this time) Gloucester Road will not have Piccadilly Line trains stopping at it for six months between Saturday 24th May until December whilst they replace the lifts at the station.

Circle and District Line trains will stop as per normal, meaning you’ll have to change to these lines if you normally get the Piccadilly Line here.

There is a full news article about in on the TfL website.

That now means there’s quite a few closures in the Zone 1 area at the moment – Covent Garden is currently exit only, at Bond Street – Central Line trains aren’t currently stopping (and when they resume again, Jubilee Line trains then won’t stop) and of course at Embankment, the long term works there means that Bakerloo and Northern Lines still aren’t stopping. That’s a lot of Zone 1 disruption!

New lifts at Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath became a fully accessible station the other week, with the introduction of two new lifts to both platforms bringing step-free access to this Overground station.

The ticket hall area has been redesigned as well with a wide gate, newer regular ticket gates and a step free entrance.

We of course went down there to have a look (photos tomorrow) but immediately you can have a sneak preview of the 3D map of what it looks like which will be in the next update of the App.

3D map of Hampstead Heath

3D Maps / Accessibility / Overground — — 08 May 14

Come on board

Thanks to the nice people over at TfL Accessibility for giving us a plug today, they’ve been mentioning on their Twitter feed over the past few days the winners of their competition that they ran last year, of which we were one of the four winners.

TfL Accessibility

Station Master does indeed have comprehensive accessibility information about all the Tube, Overground and DLR stations in London, telling you exactly how many steps there are, if there are lifts and/or escalators at each stations, and with 3D maps too of the stations so you can visualise what it’s going to be like to access before you even travel there!

Buy the App from the iTunes store here.

Accessibility — — 15 Apr 14

Last Wooden Escalator

The accessibility works to turn Greenford into a step-free station have picked up pace, and we got word that yesterday would be the last day that the sole-remaining wooden escalator on the Underground would be running, so we popped down to have a look.

Greenford Escalator

Unfortunately, it transpired that the up-only wooden escalator had already been turned off a couple of days ago (we think it last ran on Sunday), and there was no last chance to ride it.

The new up escalator on the far left hand side from the bottom was running, complete with a friendly member of TfL staff pointing it out to people who were failing to read the sign and were going to trudge up the stairs instead.

Closed Off

“They’re replacing the middle stairs as well”, they told us. What with – new stairs? (Actually, it will be wider and with tactile paving). But work apparently starts today on removing it and will be replaced with what’s being called an incline lift – a lift that works along the angle of an escalator. It’s meant to be for those with accessibility issues, but it’s going to be such a novelty having one at a tube station that there are going to be people who go there just to take a ride on it.

Actually, if you want to know what an incline lift is like – there is already one in London here, it’s just not at a station.

Do not enter!

“Can you see what’s different about it .. it’s made of wood!” said a mother bending down with her small child and asking and answering a question all in the same breath. Most people just walked on past, some it seems realised the significance.

So, farewell to our old wooden friend – the sole survivor in the wake of the 1987 King’s Cross fire, as another little piece of Underground history disappears.

Accessibility / Engineering / Escalators — — 12 Mar 14

More Story Telling

Russell Square Sign

If I were reading this blog, rather than writing it – I have to say I’d probably think “Surely you’ve just made that up and have photoshopped it now?”, but no – I kid you not. This is real.

We recently reported on the TfL department of mathematical magic where both 193 and 320 steps equates to the same as a 15 storey building. Turns out the magic maths department have sprinkled their magic on the warning sign at Russell Square too which we spotted yesterday, which has 175 steps, which is also somehow equivalent to 15 floors!

So, dear TfL we’ve done some of the hard work for you. Let’s say that the original Covent Garden sign is correct and that 193 steps is 15 storey building. That’s 12.8 steps per storey, meaning that Hampstead should be a 25 story building, and Russell Square 13 (rounded down) or 14 stories (rounded up).

Any chance of some correct labelling? Or does your sign writer just really like the number ‘15‘. ??

Accessibility / Signage — — 13 Feb 14

Blobby blobby blobby

We’ve finally had a chance to analyse and look at the differences between the latest tube map, and its previous incarnation to see what’s different, apart from just the new cover design.

And (as it often does), it just comes down to the fact that more blue ‘accessibility’ blobs have been added, in this case – replacing some that were previously white blobs.

In case you’re still confused by the difference between them, a blue blob is complete step-free access from street to platform to train, whereas a white blob indicates that although it’s step-free to platform, there is a height difference between the platform and the train.

So with the new S7 trains now practically completely rolled out to the Hammersmith & City line, Hammersmith H&C station has been upgraded from a white blob to a blue one. Likewise at King’s Cross where, again, it’s become a blue from white – although Farringdon still remains white.

The map now reflects all the ‘platform humps’ that have been installed on the Northern Line, which have been there for a while but the official map has now finally caught up – High Barnet, Finchley Central and Morden are all now blue-blobbed-up.

In the meantime, we’re working on our own much-cleaner to look at blob-free accessibility map, which we’ll publish here when it’s done.

Accessibility / Map — — 25 Jan 14

A short storey about steps

An intriguing audio announcement at Covent Garden came over the PA system when we were there the other day. Far from being told to mind the gap, report anything suspicious, always touch out, or any of the other mantra that’s continually spouted at you, we were told that ‘Entering the lifts from the wrong side is contravening a by-law’, and from the sounds of it could get you in trouble.

Covent Garden is of course hugely busy, and I suspect there’s a plan being mooted within TfL towers to make it exit only – a bit like Camden Town already is at the weekends. And indeed, the fastest way out of the station is to walk up the ‘entrance’ staircase, against the flow of people, and nip into the empty lift, moments before the queues of people who have been waiting on the proper side enter it and give you filthy looks for jumping the queue.

The other alternative of course is to walk up the 193 steps, which (as another of their famed audio announcements informs you) is the equivalent to a fifteen storey building. And their advice isn’t to be taken lightly – we once saw a man halfway up sat down, looking very red, out of breath, and a member of station staff and paramedic coming the other way down the stairs to assist him.

So if 193 steps is a fifteen storey building, that’s … (digs out calculator) 12.8 steps per storey. Right?

So we were rather surprised the other day when visiting Hampstead station – the deepest on the whole of the network, with the highest number of steps on its emergency staircase, in this case there are 320 of them (There are exactly 320 of them – 298 on the spiral, 22 flat – so why the sign says ‘over 320’ is another thing that is wrong), which by TfL’s maths at 12.8 steps per storey must mean it’s the equivalent to a twenty-five storey building .. right? RIGHT!

Oh. No. Wait …

It seems that ’15 storeys’ is the generic sign. Either that or TfL have a magic calculator that always gives the number ’15’ no matter what you type into it?

Expect to see a sign at Chalk Farm shortly informing you of it’s 54 steps being the equivalent to a 15 storey building …

Accessibility / Posters / Signage / TfL — — 14 Jan 14

Olympia access

New steps at Olympia

Station Master paid a visit to Kensington (Olympia) the other day which we’ve been meaning to for ages since it’s had a facelift, so we’ll have a few posts over the next few days about the station.

The big news from Olympia is that it’s now got a gateline on both exit/entrances! No more ‘we trust you’ touch in oyster pads, but proper gates to control access to the station.

But because people used to use the station as a means of just crossing the line (and not getting on a train), TfL have built a new staircase, and segregated the footbridge over, meaning that if you’re not wanting to jump on a train, you can still ‘access’ the station just to get from one side to the other.

Olympia Footbridge

Accessibility — — 29 Dec 13

New Edgware Road Lifts

Inside Edgware Road Lift

Edgware Road on the Bakerloo Line has been closed for the majority of the year having its lifts refurbished, and with little fanfare the station re-opened on Saturday 21st December.

There are two new modern lifts installed which are clean, fast, and almost noise-less! They’re set to last for at least forty years.

Edgware Road Lifts

Accessibility / Lifts — — 28 Dec 13

New step free access at Paddington

Hammersmith Lift

TfLAccess tweeted yesterday that the new lift at Paddington station (H&C branch) had opened early, so we popped down to go and see where it was.

The lift that takes you down from the canal entrance to ticket hall level has been open for a while, but this is the lift that takes you down to platfom level, and is at the western end of the platform.

Whilst there, we also noticed that all the temporary ‘quick ticket’ ticket machines have now been replaced with more regular/permanent ticketing machines.

Hammersmith Lift SIgn

This lift adds an important step-free station in the north west area of Zone 1 which is otherwise devoid, and with Paddington H&C now being almost totally serviced by S-Stock trains, means that level boarding is now possible too. It therefore should be a blue blob on the tube map, but the latest edition (showing no interchange at Embankment with the Northern and Bakerloo there) does not show it yet.

Accessibility / Lifts / Map — — 24 Dec 13

Recent Posts

Archives

Accessibility