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Tottenham Court Road now full step free!

Finally, the lifts are open at Tottenham Court Road, and you can access both the Central and Northern line platforms step free, using the five new lifts that have been installed at the station (there is a sixth one, which is for staff/emergency use only)

The Northern line is labelled at being down at level -5, whilst the Central Line at level -4.

To get to the Central line from the ticket hall involves using two lifts, and a corridor walk, to get to the Northern, you can get one lift all the way down (which stops to interchange with the Central line if you wish).

We’re updating the 3D map for TCR today, and we’ll preview it here tomorrow and have it in the next update of the App for you …

 

15 Feb 17

New Entrance At Victoria

Part of the Victoria Station Upgrade has been completed with the brand new entrance at Cardinal Place now being open. It was due to open in December 2016, but opened a month later in January, bringing a new way in and out straight to the Victoria Line – which then lets you connect as before to the District and Circles.

The lifts aren’t finished .. yet, but there’s 3 of them – all new, and when they’re open it’ll bring step free access to another Zone 1 station.

We have of course updated the 3D map for Station Master, and here’s how it will appear ni the next update…

19 Jan 17

Tower Hill Gets Lifts

Another dreaded ‘blue blob’ will appear on the tube map after today making it harder to read, but bringing with it the excellent news that another Zone 1 station now has step free-access with the addition of two news lifts at Tower Hill tube station, meaning that you can now access both platforms without using steps.

Read the full TfL Press Release here

Tower Hill Lift 1

Tower Hill Lift 2

07 Aug 16

Tottenham Court Road Lifts

Are the lifts at the new Tottenham Court Road almost ready? It would seem to be that way, as a brand new wide barrier gate has been installed and is on view in the ticketing area at the station, to allow access down to what we think is the Northern line platforms.

We haven’t worked out yet where the lift is down to the Central line.  There’s also (obviously) another lift still currently behind blue hoardings next to escalators to take you from street level down to the ticketing area.   Looks like it could open soon though, and the Tube will get another step-free station added to its list.

Wide gate by the new lift

Wide gate by the new lift

18 May 16

South Tottenham Step Free

Just in time for the line to be … closed for several months whilst it’s electrified, step-free access has come to South Tottenham station on the Overground with the addition of two new lifts.

The ticketing area has been improved too with a new gate line, ticket machines, a bike rack and even a nice garden is being built.  But as from June of this year, trains will only run to Gospel Oak, and then from September the whole line will be shut whilst it is converted so that longer electric trains can run upon it, and not the two-car diesel ones that are there at the moment.

Updated 3D map to follow!

Lifts at South Tottenham

Lifts at South Tottenham

06 May 16

Still no lift at Vauxhall

The new January 2016 Tube Map brought with it a few changes, but one of the more subtle ones was that Vauxhall now got a connector blob – sorry! I mean a ‘blue wheelchair blob’ (making it impossible to distinguish whether stations marked as such are interchange stations or not).

Vauxhall Blue Blob

Vauxhall Blue Blob

This should have meant that the accessibility count for step-free stations should have gone up to 70, except for the small matter … that the lift is not operational yet.  Down at platform level the corridor between the two platforms at the southern end is where they’re building it, and up in the ticket hall area, all there is is a big blue door (below) where it’s not finished.  We’re just wondering how long it will be in terms of time between the Tube Map saying it’s accessible, and it actually being a reality…

Lift not finished at Vauxhall

Lift not finished at Vauxhall

13 Jan 16

Inclinator at Greenford

And following on from yesterday, we’ve a nice swish updated map for Greenford too … which has now lost its wooden escalator (the last on the system) and has had an inclinator installed instead.  So our new 3D map reflects this.

New 3D map for Greenford

New 3D map for Greenford

19 Oct 15

Covent Garden Re-opens

We were lucky enough in the last few days to get a ride in one of the two new shiny lifts at Covent Garden.  The station has been exit only since February of this year whilst two of the lifts have been replaced, and we can now report on the new lifts!

New Covent Garden Lift

New Covent Garden Lift

We timed it, and on average the lift is about 8 seconds faster than the old ones.  Their capacity is also 56 people – six more than the 50 of the old lifts.  All this will help get more people moving.  But perhaps the smartest thing is that the doors now have intelligent software installed, meaning that they can sense if no one is getting in or out at a certain leve, and rather than lingering around for wasted time, it’ll shut the doors and whizz back up or down to collect people who may be waiting at the other level.

All in all – people should be shunted up and down more quickly than before!

The respite is only for a couple of months over the Christmas period though – come February of 2015, Covent Garden will become exit only again whilst the other two lifts are replaced, and you’ll have to wait until November of next year for the station to be fully open again.

 

08 Nov 14

Step-free London Bridge

We’re a bit confused about the step free arrangements at London Bridge station.  They recently finished building a new ‘side entrance’ into the station along with a shopping parade, and next to it, what must have cost a lot of money to build, an ‘S-bend’ style ramp with a wide guide .. for, wheelchair users right?  Uh, no.

Step free London Bridge

Step free London Bridge

This is the sign that greets you by the entrance to the new ramp indicating that it’s for people with luggage and pushchairs only – because there’s no lift here, only escalators.

For complete step-free access at London Bridge you have to use the entrance/exit round on Borough High Street, and here’s where we spotted something else unusual – the lifts are inside their respective gatelines – meaning that if you’re a wheelchair user changing between the Jubilee and Northern you have to exit through one gateline, and then enter back through another!

This is fine if you’re on a travelcard or Freedom pass, but if you’re on Pay As You Go Oyster (or Contactless) then it will sting you for two fares, so you have to make sure that you ask the station staff to let you out of one barrier, and back into another.

11 Oct 14

Gloucester Road Closure

Not stopping at Gloucester Road

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!

15 May 14