Crossrail – we’re keeping up the pressure
Transport for All
Since our action for Crossrail access, there...
Since our action for Crossrail access, there have been some positive developments in the fight for making Crossrail stepfree. Crucially, Crossrail’s project sponsors (Department for Transport and Transport for London) have been carrying out a feasibility study on making all Crossrail stations accessible. Results are expected by the end of 2013, and Transport for All will be meeting with Minister Stephen Hammond on this issue.
The Mayor has pledged that Crossrail will be stepfree, but has avoided saying that it will be stepfree by 2018, when it opens.
The battle isn’t won yet, but here’s a roundup of the latest news on Crossrail access.
Mayoral commitments
On 9th October, London Assembly Members quizzed Boris Johnson, chair of Transport for London, and Peter Hendy, Commissioner of TfL, on Crossrail access. Stephen Knight asked: “When will all Crossrail stations have pavement to train access?”
Boris replied: “What we have agreed with the Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin is that we are going to set out a programme to install step-free access on all of those Crossrail stations, many of which are 150 years old. They have never had step-free access in history, but we are going to do it. It is very important that we should do it in a sensible way and that means we are going to start with the stations where footfall is greatest“.
However, he shied away from a target date by which all stations would be stepfree, and said it would “certainly…not be by 2018” (when Crossrail opens). He added “We do not have a target date yet but there is a clear undertaking from the Department that we will work together on a programme to do all of them”.
Hendy added: “I am very confident, actually, that in respect of the ones with the greatest footfall we will get there by 2018 and I am getting increasingly confident about the remainder”.
Disabled and older transport users in Redbridge will be pleased that Boris added that Seven Kings Station would be “top of the list because….it is a high-volume station”.
You can read the full transcript here.
On 6th November, at the TfL Board meeting, Peter Hendy told the Board that Boris was going to write to the Minister about Crossrail access; and again promised to do so when Transport for All quizzed him in an LBC radio interview on 1st November.
Footfall
Crossrail project sponsors have been clear that projected footfall at the planned stations will form a central part of their decision on which stations to prioritise for stepfree access. Transport for All has obtained the projected figures for passenger numbers during the weekday morning peak (07:00 – 10:00) for 2026.
Clearly, the number of older and disabled passengers wanting to use Crossrail stations will only increase. It’s vital that Crossrail stations are ready to accomodate us.
