On the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines, as you approach South Kensington tube station, you will hear the following pre-recorded message:
“Alight here for the Museums and the Royal Albert Hall”
Except, if you’re in a wheelchair, or have mobility problems, you can’t. That’s because there’s no step free access!
In an area where you have the Natural History, Science and Victoria & Albert Museums as well as the Royal Albert Hall it is astonishing that a wheelchair visitor cannot travel directly by tube. We asked the Mayor of London about this and here is what his ‘Deputy Mayor for London Transport’ (Heidi Alexander) had to say.
“There are plans to introduce step-free access at South Kensington Underground station and this project will be undertaken in three phrases.”
“The first phase will enhance the capacity of the District and Circle line platforms and ticket hall. This will be complete by 2020. By the end of of 2022, there will be step free access to the District and Circle lines and by 2025 the Piccadilly line will also be step free. I appreciate that is still a long time in the future, but I would like to reassure you that we are committed to providing full step-free access at this station.”
YOU ARE IN A WHEELCHAIR BUT YOU STILL WANT TO VISIT!
Heidi Alexander – Deputy Mayor For Transport
This is what Ms. Alexander had to say about getting there. “While there is still a long way to go on the Tube, TfL’s bus fleet is fully accessible. TfL advises customers travelling to South Kensington who require step-free access to take the tube to Earl’s Court (on either the Piccadilly Or District lines) and from there take a bus to the museums (direct routes: C1, 74, or via a single change from routes C3 / 328 onto routes 14 / 414.
From autumn 2018, Victoria Underground station will also be step free, which means you could catch the C1 bus to South kensington from there also.”
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Next week we will be publishing Ms. Alexander’s advices concerning The Mayor’s & TfL’s future investment in London’s transport system. It should be noted, however, that progress towards a more accessible system should have commenced with increased urgency decades ago. The current administration (formed 9 May 2016) have clearly been more pro-active in achieving greater accessibility than previous regimes.
And in our next article Ms. Alexander will explain how the Mayor (Sadiq Khan) has secured £200 million of funding to further increase the tempo of creating more step-free stations.
She is right to herald the £200 million funding that they have lobbied for but surely this highlights the gap between what is needed in London to provide more step-free access and the £52billion being spent on HS2? A subject we will be returning to as soon as we have heard the answers to the questions we have put to The Minister for Transport, Chris Grayling.