Minding the Accessibility Gap

Disability campaigners such as Transport for All greeted with dismay the report of 5^th June 2015 from the Evening Standard that London Underground lifts were out of action for 734 hours during 2014, up from 476 hours in 2013 and 319 in 2012.

According to Transport for London though, the body that operates the Underground and other transport networks in London, the figures don’t tell the whole story. The total of 734 hours across the network does not refer to lifts being broken but to times when they were taken out of service due to a lack of trained staff to supervise them. It also included times when stations are closed at night. Transport for London (TfL) states that lifts are still available over 99% of the time and the staff shortages are not connected to staffing reduction plans, which have not yet gone into effect. In fact, as ticketing offices are closed, more staff become available to help on the station.

“That means something for accessibility as we are an operator that offers the full turn and go service [to disabled customers] with no need to book in advance,” says James Grant, senior communications manager, Transport for London. “Our staff will do that there and then and will call ahead to connecting and the destination stations.”

The lifts story coincided with TfL releasing information about concept work it is carrying out with design agency Studio Egret West about future design for London Underground stations. This London Underground Design Idiom is currently featured in an installation at SEW’s studio for the London Festival of Architecture and covers accessibility issues. The Idiom focuses on using design for two main areas of accessibility improvement. One is bringing design consistency to look and feel, an improvement intended to provide navigation benefits for people with learning disabilities. The other concerns lighting, using it for wayfinding and to highlight features such as ticketing areas.

However TfL has wider accessibility plans than that. Currently 25% of Tube stations have step free access to platforms and TfL’s business plan for the next 10 years includes making a further 19 stations fully accessible and four partially accessible, with money being targeted at ‘key strategic stations’ i.e. those which provide most connections to the rest of the network. Although stations in zone one, which are often both deep and old, are harder and more expensive to convert than stations further out in the network, Vauxhall, Victoria, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road are earmarked for accessibility. All Crossrail stations will have step free access and there are further improvements planned for other parts of the London travel network such as the Overground, DLR and Tramlink.

However step free access does not necessarily mean that wheelchair users will be able to get from the platform onto the train, if there is a height difference between the platform and train. So London Underground has also fitted 28 more stations with manual boarding ramps in the past year, reducing any problems with ‘minding the gap’.

London buses are 100% accessible, according to TfL, but at present just 80% of bus stops are, although this has risen from less than 30% in 2008. A target of 95% has been set for the end of 2016.

A May 2015 update about TfL accessibility and future plans is available from https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/your-accessible-transport-network-3-main-document.pdf.

Advice about accessibility to other British metro systems is available from network websites and also from http://www.disabledtraveladvice.co.uk. Glasgow has no lift access to Subway platforms and wheelchairs are required to be folded on the trains. Both Merseyrail and Tyne and Wear Metro have variable access across the network, depending on the age of the station.

Minding the Accessibility Gap

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