S Bush Tube: Disabled access "deferred indefinately" - TfL

Transport for London have come under fierce questioning at the London Assembly in the form of two very well written and targeted questions, which officials have been stalling on answering. The questions will now have to be answered however, because they have been formally put in writing to Mayor of London Boris Johnson by Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat Assembly Member.

You may remember, prior to our tube station being closed for months, we were promised among other things a fully accessible tube. This was in keeping with TfL's laudable efforts to make the system as accessible to disabled people as possible. I know this because I used to work for a disability charity and had regular contact with all levels of TfL, who in many cases were being led by people genuinely committed to making a real difference.

But then came a great big pile of money up for grabs in the form of Westfield's various contributions to public works to make up for the disruption of having one of Europe's biggest shopping centres slap bang in the middle of the Bush. And good intentions took a back seat.

Now we are being told that in order to install a simple lift TfL would have to spend upwards of £100 million. And that ithas been "deferred indefinately". Can both of these statements be true? And would that make the lift the most expensive in recorded human history?

We will see, now that the Mayor is on notice that he'll have to publicly answer the questions. Yesterday we were told that Boris was 'furious' at continuing delays to engineering works. How about a little sound and fury at the fact that in the year 2010 we are still building tube stations that disabled people can't use?

For now all we have is holding answers as you'll see below ... but the truth will out! Watch this space.

Shepherds Bush Tube station step free access (1)

Question No: 130 / 2010

Caroline Pidgeon

Media reports from the 9th October 2009 refer to Transport for London stating that work to build lifts and introduce step free access at the Shepherds Bush Central line station have been “deferred indefinitely”. Does this still remain the case or can you offer a timescale for when this new tube station will actually be accessible to all Londoners?

Answer from the Mayor:
Officers are drafting a response which will be sent shortly.

Shepherds Bush step free access (2)

Question No: 131 / 2010

Caroline Pidgeon

Media reports from the 9th October 2009 refer to Transport for London claiming that the installation of lifts and step free access at the new Shepherds Bush Central line station could cost up to £100 million. Can you please state what was the basis of TfL calculations in making such a claim and at what period of time were the calculations actually made? Can an explanation be given as to why the proposed cost of up to £100 million was only discovered after the new tube station had been built?

Answer from the Mayor:

Officers are drafting a response which will be sent shortly.

This cost estimate was in the public domain before the station was rebuilt. The inclusion of lifts was not part of the original scope of the station works agreed and delivered by Westfield Ltd, which involved only the new above-ground ticket hall.