Transport for London
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Accessible travel gets funding boost
Increase in step-free Tube stations as plans are announced for £200m investment.
More than 30 Tube stations will be boosted by step-free access after Mayor Sadiq Khan outlined plans for additional funds to be invested over the next five years.
It will bring the total number of stations with step-free access to all platforms to more than 100. This represents more than 40 per cent of the Underground network, increasing the proportion from the current level of 26 per cent.
The funding represents the biggest boost to accessible travel in the network's 153 year history.
The move was announced as part of TfL's draft Business Plan, to be published tomorrow, which also outlines plans to bring forward the much needed delivery of step-free access at outer London stations at Harrow on the Hill and Newbury Park, with work beginning next year. Together, these stations see nearly 15 million journeys every year.
This is in addition to major stations such as Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Victoria becoming step-free in 2017.
As well as making travel easier for older and disabled people, step-free access will directly benefit parents and carers with children and buggies and give more travel options for everyone.
Step-free access has already been introduced at Tower Hill and Vauxhall, while work to make Finsbury Park more accessible is under way.
TfL will also utilise the latest technology and knowledge from the wider transport industry to speed up the delivery of making the world's oldest network more accessible. Work will progress at vital interchanges such as Bank and Elephant & Castle.
The Mayor said: 'As part of making London's transport system one of the very best in the world we must ensure it is accessible for all Londoners. It's simply not right that for disabled people, parents with young children and many older people, many of our stations are still very difficult to use.'
London Underground's Managing Director Mark Wild said: 'Making the Underground more accessible for our customers is one of our top priorities. We should not only be aspiring to, but actually making a reality of, a transport
network that can be used by everyone.'
- For more information visit tfl.gov.uk/accessibility
