Your accessible transport network

February 2014 update 

Contents

4 	Foreword

6 	Looking back at 2013
– Better transport infrastructure
– New trains
– Better stations
– Streets

12 	Improved customer experience
– Better staff training
– Improvements at our contact centres
– Travel mentoring
– Mobility scooters
– More accessible information
– Better signage
– Customer information
– Open data and apps
– Audio/visual systems
– Better engagement

21 	Our plans for 2014
– Better transport infrastructure
– Improved customer experience
– More accessible information
– Better engagement
– Get involved

28 	Summary of improvements

30 	Appendix
– Future Tube and London Overground step-free stations
– National Rail stations receiving step-free access by 2014 with Access for All    funding
– Network Rail stations deferred from previous Access for All funding round
– Future Crossrail stations

Foreword

London has one of the most accessible transport networks in the world. We have accessible bus and taxi fleets, the step-free Docklands Light Railway and continued investment means that more Tube and London Overground stations are being made step-free. 

But we know that the system is not perfect. That is why just over a year ago we and the Mayor published Your Accessible Transport Network. This action plan sets out our commitment to improve and make travelling around the Capital easier for everyone. This update explains how we have performed against the commitments we made and what we are going to do next.

Every day in London 1.3 million journeys are made by disabled people, 700,000 trips are taken by people aged over 75, nearly five million journeys are made by passengers carrying heavy luggage and 1.5 million by people with small children. So there are few Londoners for whom easy access to the transport network is not important.

There has been real progress in delivering improvements and we are determined to keep up the momentum. 

We have introduced boarding ramps at 35 Underground stations and installed platform humps at many more. This, alongside the new low-floor trains we are introducing on the Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City and District lines, has removed the gap between train and platform at many stations and opened up new parts of the network to wheelchair users.

Working in partnership with disabled Londoners, we have invested heavily in accessibility training given to Tube and bus staff. We have also implemented better signage and customer information, supported the development of apps for disabled
people and are well on our way to making 95 per cent of bus stops accessible by the end of 2016.

This year several new step-free station projects will be completed on the increasingly popular London Overground network. By this spring, we will emulate what is already available on London Underground by operating a turn-up-and-go service on the London Overground network. This will mean that passengers who need assistance are no longer asked to book in advance, although they are welcome to continue
doing so if they want.

We will also be introducing more boarding ramps at Tube stations, de-cluttering pavements and launching our new website to provide disabled Londoners with more information about how best to get around.

As we do this, we will continue to engage with disabled Londoners to help us shape our programme of improvements. With the help of the Government, local authorities and the private sector, we will achieve our aims – a city where people feel that the
public transport network is for them, where it is easily accessible by all, and where everyone can be confident as they travel around our city.

Sir Peter Hendy CBE,
Transport Commissioner

Looking back at 2013

In December 2012, we published Your Accessible Transport Network, the Mayor’s commitment to making it easier for older and disabled people to travel in London. It set out a range of commitments – short- and long-term, some easy to achieve and others requiring investment of tens of millions of pounds – to improve our transport infrastructure, customer service and information, staff training and stakeholder communication in order to make journeys easier.

‘We warmly welcome TfL’s decision to roll out manual boarding ramps at a further 19
stations across the network, which will support disabled people to travel more independently.’ Ruth Owen OBE, Chief Executive, Whizz-Kidz

This paper looks at what has been achieved over the past year to meet those commitments, what we will deliver in 2014 and a number of further commitments based on what you have told us you want to see.

Better transport infrastructure

Boarding ramps and platform humps

One of the most important innovations in 2012 was the introduction of boarding ramps on the Tube network for the first time.

We announced that we would keep the ramps at the 16 stations where they were introduced for the London 2012 Games and look to bring them to more locations. In September 2013, following feasibility studies and design improvements to the ramps, we installed them at a further 19 Tube stations.

‘This is brilliant news for everyone who has campaigned for a step-free
Crystal Palace station; in particular disabled and older Londoners who
will be able to finally use the station - some of us for the first time. TfA
believes that this is another step along the way to equal access
to transport for disabled and older people in the Capital.’ Faryal Velmi, Director, Transport for All

New trains

Level access on platforms was also improved with new low-floor trains, which are now running on the Metropolitan line and on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. These new trains will start to be seen on the District line later this year.

By the end of 2016, 40 per cent of the Tube network will be served by these
new, air-conditioned trains, with high standards of accessibility.

We are also refurbishing trains on the Northern line with improved colour contrast, wheelchair spaces, low-level passenger emergency alarms and visual door closing indicators.

Better stations

Step-free access at stations also improved, with new lifts and other improvements at Denmark Hill and Crystal Palace. These are the first of a further 25 stations which we will be making step-free on the Tube and Overground in the next ten years.

In December 2013, we also made Paddington Tube station step-free to the Hammersmith & City line.

‘Wide-aisle gates mean that people can travel around without relying so much on support if they don’t need it. That means it’s better for disabled people and better for staff – they can focus their attention on those who really need their support.’ Dr Alice Maynard, Chair of TfL’s Independent Disability Advisory Group and disability charity Scope

We continued our programme of station refurbishments and smaller improvements, including fitting 93 more wide-aisle gates at 60 stations, meaning that these facilities are now available across two-thirds of the Tube network.

We intended to introduce tactile paving on all platform edges across the Tube network and good progress has been made.

At present 695 (or nearly 98 per cent) of the 711 platforms have tactile paving
at their edge. Two of the remaining platforms (at Cannon Street) will have tactile paving fitted as part of a wider station project to be completed in 2014. However, technical issues on the remaining 14 platforms (north of Queen’s Park on the Bakerloo line and at Leytonstone) mean that we are not currently able to install tactile paving in those locations. We will continue to seek a solution to this.

Bus stops

In February, we hit a new milestone in our improvements to bus stop accessibility.

Some 72 per cent of the Capital’s bus stops now fully meet our accessibility criteria, compared with fewer than 30 per cent in 2008. We are investing £18m in this programme, including funding London’s borough councils, which will enable us to increase this to 95 per cent of bus stops by the end of 2016.

The year 2013 also saw the first of the New Routemaster buses introduced in full service. Routes 9, 11, 24 and 390 converted fully, introducing a number of accessibility improvements including low-floor access at all three doors, a large wheelchair space, a hearing aid induction loop and a rear-facing iBus information screen that can be seen from the wheelchair bay.

Streets

Our programme of improvements to street facilities also continued.

More than 95 per cent of signalised pedestrian crossings now have audible signals and/or rotating cones and tactile paving. Pedestrian Countdown displays, showing how much time people have left to cross the road, are being fitted at 200 sites across London and this year saw them introduced at key locations including Highbury Corner and Trafalgar Square.

More Legible London signs, which make it easier to understand and navigate the
Capital’s streets, are also being introduced. Brixton is the latest town centre to adopt
the signs, with Bromley, Clapham Junction and Kingston set to follow. There are now
more than 1,200 of these clear, consistent maps in 27 boroughs across London.

We also continued to improve the Capital’s public realm and pedestrian environment, with improvement schemes at Aldgate, Bromley, Euston Circus, Henly’s Corner and Tolworth in 2013.

See page 21 for details of future planned infrastructure improvements.

Improved customer experience

Better staff training

We have worked with our partners to develop better training programmes for our frontline staff.

Last summer, we began a pilot project on the Tube to create accessibility centres of excellence at five of our busiest step-free stations.

New staff training was developed and is being delivered in partnership with disabled people’s organisations Inclusion London and Transport for All.

For the first time our frontline staff have had training delivered by disabled trainers alongside our in-house team. They began at Stratford and are now working with staff at Green Park, King’s Cross, London Bridge and Westminster.

‘Disabled and older passengers tell us that staff who are disability equality trained and confident to assist them make all the difference to a journey.’ Tracey Lazard, Chief Executive, Inclusion London

‘Buses are a lifeline to many older people but confidence in the bus driver makes the difference between making a journey or not. This is a great step forward in making people feel safe on our London buses.’ Sam Mauger, Chief Executive, Age UK London

This was swiftly followed by the launch of a new accessibility training programme for the Capital’s bus drivers, developed in partnership with Transport for All and Age UK London. 

Training includes a film and workbook designed to give bus drivers a greater understanding of the needs of their older and disabled customers based on the personal experience of participants.

This builds on the extensive training London’s bus drivers currently receive and will be delivered to all 24,500 London bus drivers by the end of this year.

Improvements at our contact centres

The service provided by staff in our contact centres is vital in helping people make accessible journeys and in gaining feedback from customers.

In March, we introduced accessibility champions to our correspondence teams, who have been providing an enhanced service to customers with accessibility concerns, including meeting individuals to resolve their problems.

We have also made it simpler to contact us by moving to a single, low-cost telephone number.

Travel mentoring

Our service provides accompanied journeys and aims to help increase the confidence of disabled people so they can use public transport independently.

Bus Days introduce disabled people to bus travel in a safe, controlled environment and provide a training opportunity for bus operator staff.

We are involved in collaborative travel mentoring projects in 21 of the 33 London boroughs and aim to expand provision further.

‘We are extremely proud that we are involved with Bus Days and are providing travel training in this way. It is a natural progression of our business, which is about empowering people to take control of their lives in our society.’ Bob Harris, Chairman of Sutton Community Transport

We also helped Whizz-Kidz (a charity for young wheelchair users) to develop a travel module for their advanced wheelchair skills training. We held an initial session which included classroom sessions on how to plan journeys and use tickets before heading out to try the network for real.

After extremely positive feedback from participants we are planning to develop this training further next year.

Mobility scooters

A new travel mentoring scheme also launched as the Docklands Light Railway
(DLR) Community Ambassador Scheme began offering voluntary training for
mobility scooter users who want to start using the DLR service.

This is an extension of the Community Ambassadors’ core work hosting open days, events and taking older and disabled people on free trips to help them become more confident in travelling independently.

It complements our other recent improvements to access for mobility scooter users, including the mobility aid recognition scheme on London Buses.

We were also able to start accepting mobility scooters on Emirates Air Line (within certain weight and size restrictions) following an upgrade to the cabins.

See page 23 for details of customer experience improvements planned in 2014.

More accessible information

It is vital that our customers have information that is comprehensive, accurate, up-to-date and available in formats they can use.

We have used lessons learnt during the 2012 Games to improve the information we give our customers.

Better signage

We reviewed signage throughout the Tube network and have a new signage strategy, which is being used in stations.

It includes use of the Legible London style to sign permanent attractions near stations, which seamlessly matches the Legible London pedestrian wayfinding maps on street. We are also keeping the bright magenta style developed for the
2012 Games and are using it for major events such as the Notting Hill Carnival.

We also have a better way of showing step-free routes through stations, with all signs in a distinctive blue (similar to the Blue Badge colours). These appear regularly throughout stations and are at an appropriate height for wheelchair users to guide people through the station more easily.

We are also using these signs in lifts, on floors and on platform edge doors to show where it is best to board the train for level access.

The signs are now in place at 19 stations and will be used as a consistent style across all of our networks from now on.

Customer information

We have also made it easier to keep our customers informed.

We launched our latest Twitter feed, @TfLAccess. This is a great way to engage directly with customers and we use it to raise awareness of our accessible services, make announcements relating to accessibility and to receive customer feedback and ideas. The account currently has 3,500 followers.

In addition, in September we began running an opt-in email service for accessibility news and information. So far, more than 30,000 Londoners have signed up for this.

We have been working with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to produce a step-free rail map for the whole of London (including the rail services run by other operators). This was intended to be published in 2013. However, to
allow sufficient time for development and user testing, we have delayed publication and expect the map to be ready by summer 2014.

Open data and apps

We held a competition for software developers to use our open data sources to create accessible apps that make our real-time travel data easier to use.

‘The response to the competition was very positive. The competition showed that high quality, accessible and innovative apps can be achieved by designing for speech recognition and audio interpretation; the meaningful labelling of buttons, links and images, the ability to read everything logically and provide alternatives to maps for those who are unable to use them.’ Peter Abrahams, OneVoice ICT

As part of this, our partners AbilityNet and Royal National Institute for Blind
People (RNIB) tested 194 apps for features such as use of colour contrast,
text-to-speech facility and general user experience. From the shortlist, a pan-disability panel with expertise in transport selected the following apps:

• 	Best visual impairment app: London’s Nearest Bus – This allows the user to find the nearest buses and live departure times from their location. Users can also set individual bus alerts to trigger when one is due
• 	Best app for accessibility/step-free information: Station Master – This offers detailed accessibility information for every London Underground, Overground and DLR station
• 	Best all round app: Tube Tracker – A multi-modal app that finds the nearest station to the user with directions. Provides automatically updated live departure information, a journey planning function, first/last Tubes and Tube status alerts
• 	Judges’ award: Colour Blind Tube Map – This displays the London Underground map in various formats for easier viewing by people with all forms of colour blindness, and other vision impairments such as cataracts, loss of contrast sensitivity and hyperopia

We also added to the open data we publish with a new data feed containing all the information in our Step-free Tube guide. This includes the size of the step and gap between the platform and train at our step-free stations and interchanges. This data is already being used by the Station Master app mentioned above.

Audio/visual systems

One of the major improvements to travel information in recent years has been the widespread use of audio/visual systems on buses and in stations and trains. While we are already using this technology across much of our network, we improved our provision this year with two schemes:

• 	A world-leading system was introduced on Victoria line trains as one of the final parts of the upgrade to that line. For the first time this allows us to give tailored, real-time announcements audibly and visibly that are centrally controlled, consistent and timely. It helps avoid the situation where people with hearing loss miss an announcement made by the driver that other passengers can hear
• 	We improved advice for customers using our River Bus services. Real-time arrivals information is now available on screens at River Bus piers and via text message. It uses the same technology as the system on the bus network and at the same time we made the data openly available to developers on our website, alongside the real-time information we already provide for other modes of transport

‘It can be a distressing experience for someone with hearing loss to not have access to accurate information about unscheduled journey alterations, such as delays or destination changes. The move to provide more consistent information on the Victoria line is extremely welcome and we would like to see the system extended across the Tube and rail network.’ Dr Roger Wicks, Director of Policy and Campaigns, Action on Hearing Loss

Soon we will be introducing new help points on piers that can be used to get information as well as emergency assistance. These are consistent with the design of help points used across our other networks.

See page 25 for details of information improvements planned in 2014.

Better engagement

This year we built on our strong tradition of engagement with older and disabled people’s organisations, with several new projects to complement our existing activity.

We continued to engage with representative groups on a wide range of topics, including hosting roundtable discussions about our new website, the information needs of older and disabled people and the accessibility of Crossrail stations.

We also held our second Thinking Outside the Bus event, bringing together older and disabled customers and stakeholders with staff from London Buses and the Capital’s bus operating companies for discussion about progress made in the last year, our new training for bus drivers and to help us develop our plans for what to focus on next.

In addition, we hosted a sister event for Tube and rail services: On the Right Track. Discussion at this well-attended event focused on accessibility in four areas: trains, stations, customer service and staff training.

Both events gave us highly valuable feedback which has been used to develop this document and our programme of work for next year (see page 21 – Our plans for 2014).

Alongside these pan-London events, we have been improving our engagement at a local level, with the introduction of sub-regional mobility forums. 

These five forums bring together representatives from older and disabled people’s organisations and borough councils in the sub-regions of London (north, south, east, west and central) for strategic discussion of issues affecting local people. In 2013 we piloted the south and central forums and are now reviewing these ahead of launching the forums across London.

We also contacted and visited organisations and forums across London that reach people in most need of the Dial-a-Ride service (including anyone over 85 years old, people receiving the higher mobility rate component of disability living allowance/ personal independence payment, people registered blind or partially sighted and those on a War Pension mobility supplement).

As well as raising awareness of Dial-a-Ride and how best to use it, this increased the proportion of applicants this year who were automatically eligible, meaning that we are reaching the people who can benefit most from the service.

Please turn to page 27 for details of engagement improvements planned in 2014.

Our plans for 2014

When we published Your Accessible Transport Network in December 2012, we included plans right up until the end of this decade. To continually improve the accessibility of the network we will keep reviewing and adding to this programme.

This section highlights the action we have committed to this year, as well as new items that have been added to the programme based on our engagement and research from last year.

Better transport infrastructure

We will continue to make improvements to our transport infrastructure so disabled Londoners can use more of the network with greater ease. In 2014 you will see the following:

Buses
• 	Further progress with bus stop accessibility, including reaching our next milestone of 75 per cent of all stops being accessible by April 2014. By March 2015 all bus stops on the Transport for London Road Network (the red routes) will be accessible, as will 80 per cent of stops across the Capital as a whole. Our target is 95 per cent by the end of 2016
• 	The New Routemaster bus will be introduced to more routes as more than 600 of these vehicles come into service by 2016
• 	Hearing aid induction loops have been fitted as standard on new buses since 2011. We will make	it clearer to passengers that loops are available onboard

Stations and trains
• 	A number of step-free station schemes will be completed, particularly on London Overground, including at Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Hampstead Heath, Kensal Rise, Queens Road Peckham and South Tottenham
• 	For some stations the dates by which step-free access was due to be completed has changed. Owing to changes in timescales for other station development work being carried out, some stations have been pushed back, while Ealing Broadway has been brought forward. Holborn and Camden Town have been added to the programme
• 	We will introduce boarding ramps at more Underground stations to provide level access to trains. We are beginning to prototype a new ramp design to be used at stations where there is a step down into the train
• 	We are building on the success of the London Overground by increasing capacity by 25 per cent. From the end of 2014 there will be longer trains on some lines, with the remainder completed by the end of 2015. Passenger numbers on the Overground service have quadrupled in its first six years of service, in response to improved frequency and reliability, station upgrades and a fleet of modern trains with high standards of accessibility. The capacity increase, which will be seen on most parts of the service by the end of this year, will make life easier for all passengers, but has a particular benefit for disabled people, who find overcrowding to be a major barrier to travel
• 	In 2013 we heard concerns from disabled people that not all of the existing rail stations that will be served by Crossrail have planned step-free schemes. We have announced our aim to provide step-free access at all Crossrail stations and we are discussing how to deliver this with Crossrail and DfT 
• 	In 2014 the DfT will determine its programme of Access for All funding for the next five years. A total of £103m is being made available to fund accessibility projects on the National Rail network across England and Wales. We are working with the DfT to nominate stations in London for funding and ministers will announce the results by April 2014

Streets
• 	We will continue our work to declutter pavements and make the pedestrian environment more accessible. As well as removing unnecessary signs and bollards, we are stepping-up our enforcement against pavement obstructions, including A-boards outside shops. We have designated many of the busiest streets on our road network as zero tolerance areas, where we robustly enforce and remove boards. We are now trialling the use of Fixed Penalty Notices against offenders
• 	In 2013 we developed and conducted an initial trial of new technology, called SCOOT, that detects groups of people at pedestrian crossings and adjusts the signal timings to make sure that queues are cleared. Building on the initial trial we will conduct two further on-street trials in 2014
• 	We will continue upgrading the remaining five per cent of pedestrian crossings to meet accessibility standards. Nineteen more sites on our roads and 20 on borough roads will be upgraded by March 2014 as we work to our target of 100 per cent across London by 2016

Improved customer experience

We will continue to help our staff improve the service we offer, with the
following plans:

Turn-up-and-go
• 	By spring 2014 we will formally introduce a turn-up-and-go assistance service on London Overground, matching that provided on the Tube already. All Overground stations are staffed when trains are running. However, as part of the National Rail network we have, until now, asked customers who need assistance to book 24-hours in advance. People will still be able to pre-book if they wish but the service will operate as turn-up-and-go, giving customers greater choice and flexibility in making spontaneous journeys
• 	We are keen to see turn-up-and-go assistance adopted more widely across
rail services. We are pleased that ATOC is developing a trial of turn-up-and go assistance for a number of point-to-point journeys between National Rail stations across London, which will join up busier stations that have enough staff to deliver the service

Training
• 	We have had extremely positive feedback from our centres-of-excellence
training at Tube stations and we will build on this in 2014. We will also put a programme in place to develop similar training for London Overground station staff and explore options for bringing similar training to other London Rail services (DLR, London Tramlink, Emirates Air Line)

Service quality
• 	We have been running Accessibility Mystery Traveller Surveys for a number
of years and in 2014 will extend that programme to include a specific new survey for London Overground. This will help us monitor the service we are providing more closely, and in particular the impact of turn-up-and-go and our new staff training initiatives. We will also look at similar surveys for other London Rail services

Buses
• 	Based on feedback from customers and stakeholders, we will pay closer  attention to bus drivers ‘serving the stop’. This includes pulling up at the bus stop pole, pulling in tight to the kerb and kneeling the bus. This is one of the areas we already address in our training and communication with drivers, but we know more needs to be done. We will research the issue and develop an action plan with stakeholders to improve the service at bus stops without causing delays. We will make detailed plans public by autumn 2014
• 	We will continue our wheelchair space campaign asking buggy users to make space for wheelchair users on buses. This has recently been joined by a campaign encouraging people to give up priority seats for those that need them more
• 	As a development of the wheelchair space campaign, we will engage with buggy manufacturers and retailers to encourage them to sell appropriate buggies to parents who will be using public transport

River services
• 	On the river we are introducing new help points on piers that can be used to get information as well as in emergencies. These are consistent with the design of help points used across our other networks
• 	Thames Clippers has introduced the Mobility Scooter Recognition Scheme to give first time customers the opportunity to visit a pier to understand how they can use the service and find the best way to board and alight

Contact centres
• 	In our contact centres we will expand our accessibility champion programme to include call centre staff and improve the knowledge of accessibility for all staff
• 	We will also make it easier to contact us with a dedicated email address for accessibility-related queries and by simplifying our telephone system to make it easier and quicker to speak to an adviser

More accessible information

We will continue to provide clearer, simpler and more personal accessible transport information and advice so you can make informed travel choices more easily.

We conducted research with older and disabled customers, stakeholders and our staff to better understand their information needs.

One of the key findings was that while much of the information we provide is extremely useful, awareness of its availability is low.

There were also some gaps identified in the information we provide, such as the distances in interchanges and numbers of steps in stations.

Based on this we have developed a further programme of work for 2014 and beyond, which will address some of these problems. This consists of:
• 	A tailored marketing and engagement campaign to inform older and disabled people about our accessible services and how to get the most out of them. This will highlight the most important things for people to know about our services, information and customer service from staff to give people more knowledge and confidence to use our networks. It will reach smaller, more local groups than we have been in contact with in the past and, in particular, we will contact people who may not be using public transport at the moment. It will run from February to May 2014
• 	Continuing to install our new accessibility signage, which will be in place at a further 20 stations by spring 2014
• 	Launching our new website in early 2014, with a fully redeveloped section on accessibility and major improvements across the whole site. The new site is particularly designed to work well with mobile devices, including smartphones. Among the key improvements are a ‘nearby’ feature that shows transport options near to you and ‘single accounts’ so you’ll only ever need to log in once, with one password, to access all of our online services. Later in the year our Journey Planner will be upgraded further to plan in real-time around the availability of lifts and escalators
• 	Creating a working group to implement improvements to our accessibility data. This group would investigate how we can provide detailed information about steps and stairs in stations, distances in interchanges, and whether this can be included in our journey planning tools and open data sources. We will pilot a project covering five of our busiest stations this year
• 	Introducing Wi-Fi at London Underground stations. A total of 29 more stations will have Wi-Fi by the end of 2014, meaning that customers can access real-time travel information on their mobile devices across the whole Tube network
• 	Working with partners, including RNIB and Guide Dogs, to find ways to help	people with sight loss navigate independently through the use of technology

Better engagement

We will further our engagement with disabled people so we continue to understand and learn from your experiences and make the changes you want to see. This will involve:
• 	Building on the 2013 pilot schemes, we will introduce sub-regional mobility forums in the remaining areas (north, east and west)
• 	Focusing on local engagement at garages across the bus network. We will develop plans to spread good practice across London, provide operating companies with structures for meaningful engagement and help them make contact with local organisations. We will aim to have a continuing programme of engagement developed with every major London operator by the end of 2014
• 	Having held separate large-scale engagement events for Tube, rail and buses in the past two years, in 2014 we will hold a pan-Transport for London event for the first time, which will look at accessibility across our services as a whole and at how they integrate with each other to provide a joined-up service
•	We will continue to engage with stakeholders and customers and be responsive to their issues and campaigns, working together for a better service for all our customers

Get involved

As with our original plan, we are keen to hear your feedback on the work we have
done in 2013 and what’s planned for the next year and beyond.

Please contact us at:

Email: TfLAccessibility@tfl.gov.uk

Telephone: 0343 222 1234*

Write to: Michèle Dix, Managing Director, Planning, Windsor House, 42–50 Victoria
Street, London SW1H 0TL

* Service and Network charges apply.
See tfl.gov.uk/terms for details.

Summary of improvements

More accessible information
2014	Redeveloped website launched
Journey Planner upgraded
Interactive Tube map
Wi-Fi introduced at 29 more Underground stations
Accessibility signage introduced at 20 more stations
Step-free rail map, including Network Rail stations	

Enhanced infrastructure
2014 	New fleet of Hammersmith & City and Circle line trains in full
use, with introduction on District line
Tactile paving installed on Cannon Street platforms
London Overground capacity increased by 25 per cent on
Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/West Croydon line
Seven further London Overground stations step-free	
2015/16	All bus stops on Transport for London Road Network accessible
Greenford, Tower Hill, Vauxhall and Whitechapel step-free
TfL takes over operation of current West Anglia network out of
Liverpool station, with an additional six step-free stations added
to London Overground	
2016/17	40 per cent of Tube network served by new, more accessible
rolling stock
95 per cent of London’s bus stops accessible
More than 600 New Routemaster buses in service
Upgrades to signalised pedestrian crossings completed
Tottenham Court Road step-free	
2017/18	Bank step-free to Waterloo & City line
Bond Street step-free	
2018/19	Crossrail opens
Finsbury Park and Victoria step-free	
2020/21	Bank step-free to Northern line
A further 37 Tube stations upgraded
Additional travel time for step-free journeys is reduced by a quarter	

Improving the customer experience
2014	Turn-up-and-go on London Overground
Accessibility Mystery Traveller Surveys on London Overground
New help points on river piers	

Better engagement
2014	Sub-regional mobility forums introduced in north, east and
west London
Pan-TfL engagement event, including Tube, rail and buses	

Appendix

Future Tube and London Overground step-free stations

Tube

2015/16: 
• Greenford
• Tower Hill
• Vauxhall
• Whitechapel (delivered as part of Crossrail)

2016/17: 
• Cassiobridge (previously called Ascot Road, delivered as part of Croxley Rail link)
• Ealing Broadway (delivered as part of Crossrail)
• Tottenham Court Road
• Watford Junction (added as part of Croxley Rail link, already step-free)
• Watford Vicarage Road (previously called Watford Hospital, delivered as part of Croxley Rail link)

2017/18: 
• Bank (Waterloo & City only)
• Bond Street
• Bromley-by-Bow

2018/19: 
• Barbican (delivered as part of Crossrail via Farringdon station)
• Finsbury Park
• Moorgate (Northern line only, delivered as part of Crossrail)
• Paddington (to Bakerloo line only, delivered as part of Crossrail)
• Victoria

2019/20: 
• Elephant & Castle (Northern line only) 

2020/21: 
• Battersea (delivered by the Northern line extension)
• Nine Elms (delivered by the Northern line extension)

2021/22: 
• Bank (Northern line only)
• Holborn

2023/24:
• Camden Town

Total stations made step-free by 2023/24: 18 fully, 4 partially

London Overground

2014/15: 
• Brockley
• Hampstead Heath
• Honor Oak Park
• Kensal Rise
• New Cross Gate
• Queens Road Peckham
• South Tottenham

Total stations made step-free by 2014/15: 7

National Rail stations receiving step-free access by 2014 with Access for All funding

Edmonton Green
Grove Park
Hackbridge
Ilford
Limehouse
New Eltham
New Malden
Putney
Worcester Park

Future Crossrail stations

Abbey Wood*
Acton Mainline*
Bond Street*
Brentwood#
Burnham#
Canary Wharf*
Chadwell Heath
Custom House*
Ealing Broadway*
Farringdon*
Forest Gate*
Gidea Park*
Goodmayes*
Hanwell+
Harold Wood*
Hayes & Harlington*
Heathrow Airport
Ilford*
Iver+
Langley+
Liverpool Street*
Maidenhead*
Manor Park+
Maryland+
Paddington*
Romford*
Seven Kings+
Shenfield
Slough
Southall*
Stratford
Taplow+
Tottenham Court Road*
West Drayton*
West Ealing*
Whitechapel*
Woolwich*

* Stations where step-free access will be provided as part of Crossrail project
+ Stations where options for providing step-free access are currently being considered
# Step-free access to be provided via Access for All funding

All other stations already have step-free access

© Transport for London
Windsor House
42 – 50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
February 2014
tfl.gov.uk 

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