COMMUTERS in Ealing may be aware of the recently-announced £75m plan by the Mayor of London to make the transport network more accessible for disabled Londoners and visitors to the capital.
New lifts will be installed at a dozen more stations over the next ten years. This is in addition to the 28 London Underground and London Rail stations which Transport for London has already announced will be fully accessible by 2024.
This does not include the 30 stations on the new Crossrail project, all of which will have step-free access.
TfL has made steady progress towards making the whole network accessible for disabled passengers.
In 1998, only 57 stations were step-free from street to platform, but this has now risen to 195 in 2014.
Among the stations likely to be made step-free over the next few years are Mill Hill East, Newbury Park, Osterley, West Brompton and White City. Other stations are under active consideration.
The London Underground network is the oldest and largest in the world, and most of it was built at a time when catering for the needs of disabled people was not considered to be important.
TfL and the Mayor are to be congratulated for making station accessibility a major priority.
SYED KAMALL
MEP for London
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