Cost of making some Enfield stations fully accessible 'up to £100m'

Southgate Station would be among the most challenging and costly to convert for use by wheelchair users, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Escalators and steps are the only way down to the platforms at Southgate Station

The cost of making some local tube and rail stations fully accessible could reach up to £100million, an Enfield Council meeting has heard.

Chris Cole, head of strategic transport policy and planning, told an equalities board meeting yesterday (Wednesday 17th) the council was lobbying train operators – including Transport for London (TfL) – to make “whole routes” accessible.

While acknowledging the civic centre’s limited role with rail travel, Chris said the council could still “help” with funding. However, he said the costs were “very high” with the installation of a lift at a typical station coming in at around £10m.

But the costs are sometimes significantly higher. The “worst” example locally is Southgate Station, a Grade 2 listed building where a deep lift shaft to the underground platforms would be needed.

Digging out a lift shaft at Southgate would involve getting past BT, water and sewer pipes, making it “really complicated”, and Chris said the cost of making the tube station fully accessible was likely around £100m.

However, Chris said he understood the need to make “whole routes” accessible, with only Cockfosters and Oakwood stations currently offering step-free access to the tube network in Enfield.

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He said: “My view on this is, having some accessible stations is quite good, but really it’s about the whole route. There’s no point getting on at one station if you can’t get off at your destination. That’s what we really should be pushing the operators for, operating on the whole route, but I very much accept the costs can be really quite high.”

Even some step-free stations still need a ramp to access the train at platform level. Tim Fellows, who runs a network of organisations in Enfield with the aim of improving services for LGBT+ people said he had been “frustrated” by ramps which didn’t “actually get down to platform level” when he had been pushing his father in his wheelchair.

But Chris said the “standards” for step-free access had now changed and these were being replaced. He added he’d experienced similar issues when pushing his daughter in a pram and suspected the ramps were “older” and that “things have been improving” but there were still a lot that were “not up to modern standards”.

Discussing buses, Chris said all TfL buses had accessible ramps, adding that 95% of Enfield’s bus stops were also accessible.

He said “remaining sections” of hail and ride services, where passengers signal to the driver they want to board or alight as opposed to using a designated bus stop, were being converted by TfL in the “next few years”. He added stops in rural locations were still to be completed.

New pedestrian crossings need to comply with Disability Discrimination Act guidelines and “all transport and highways schemes” need to consider the impact on mobility impaired people in their design.

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