Amersham Station, at the western ends of the Metropolitan Line, has gained step-free access after a new lift shaft and walkway opened to the public.
New lift on Platform 3 (c) TfL
The station is shared with Chiltern Railways and has three platforms. Platform 3 is closest to the station entrance and is used by both London Underground and Chiltern Railways for their southbound trains. Platforms 2 and 3 are used for northbound trains.
At the moment, there is an old footbridge linking the platforms, but no step-free access. It was planned to have that added some years back, with approvals granted in 2006 and although some early preparation works were carried out, the plans were delayed in 2009 for financial reasons. They were resurrected in 2016.
Schematic – from the 2018 planning application
The old footbridge is historic, so it has been retained for walking access, and a new separate overbridge installed, but for lifts only – no stairs*. To have added public stairs to the new overbridge would have meant a much larger structure would have been needed and it would have had to be further from the station entrance to avoid the platform canopies.
Construction of the new structure started in 2019, and in an overnight operation, the lift shafts at Amersham were craned into position with the lifts then built on-site and the overbridge added.
Craning the lift towers into place – courtesy Heidi Alexander @Heidi_LDN
Now that it’s open, there is finally step-free access to all three platforms, 15 years after it was originally proposed.
Level access between the train platform is available for Metropolitan line services and a manual boarding ramp will be available to assist customers using Chiltern Railways trains that stop at Amersham.
New overbridge (c) TfL
The completion of accessibility work at Amersham brings the total number of step-free stations on the Tube to 81.
Work continues on a further six stations which are scheduled to go step-free, at Debden, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Ickenham, Osterley, Sudbury Hill and Wimbledon Park. The final lift shaft was recently craned into position at Sudbury Hill, marking a major milestone in the delivery of these step-free schemes.
*The new overbridge does actually have stairs, on one platform only, but that’s for staff and maintenance, it’s not for the public.
Interesting that this is a lift only bridge with no publicly accessible stairs. Is this the only example of that? I can’t think of any others on LU.
The signage only referring to Platform 1, and ignoring Platform 2, is a little odd. OK, Platform 2 is usually just a Met line arrivals platform, but trains can and do depart from there.
But that’s a minor quibble. This was an epic slog to get happening, with several false starts. The people of Amersham have had to fight budget cuts, the prioritising of Olympic schemes, the idea that Chalfont & Chesham stations were ‘close’ and so the scheme was ‘unnecessary’, and that it’s outside Greater London. Over a decade of campaigning has now reached its competition.
The scheme was due to be completed under former Mayor Ken Livingstone but Boris Johnson was elected in 2008 and he claimed there was no money for step free access and yet wasted hundreds of millions on his vanitybuses and invisible garden bridge…… Looking forward to local Mp Cheryl Gillan thanking Mayor Sadiiq Khan for delivering step free access at Amersham Station!
There are several schemes at this end of the Metropolitan Line underway and due for completion in coming months
Melvin – I’m not sure why you dive in with the non-sequitor party political broadcast?
All three Greater London Mayors have blown both hot and cold on the scheme, depending on their mood – hence the over a decade of campaigning and several false starts that I mentioned.
You mention one false start with it meant to have been finished under Ken. And if Boris cancelled it in 2008, construction started on 2009 plans in 2010/11 before Boris blew cold and pulled the plug to divert money to Ken’s grand vanity 5-ring circus project (as Boris wholly embraced that vanity project as if it was his own one) to get stuff ready in time for that. It picked up momentum again before Boris left office, but Sadiq arrival almost put the scheme right back to square one. The new mayor took some persuading and thankfully he was persuaded to not only approve the spending, but not cancel it when TfL’s finances went poor.
TfL spent £4.6m on preparatory work on lifts/step free access at Amersham before it was cancelled in October 2009 along with projects at Greenford (where TfL had spent £4.6m), Ladbroke Grove (£3.06m), Newbury Park (£3.9m), Osterley (£3.9m) and West Kensington (£5.05m).
Greenford got its lift in 2015, Newbury Park 2018, Osterley was due to get its lift October last year but work stopped in April.
There’s currently no date for when Ladbroke Grove or West Kensington will get lifts.
The money saved was part of TfL’s budget and as Melvin observed there was no shortage of money for the Boris bus (£321.6m), promoting the estuary airport (£5.2m), the cable car (£24m) and the garden bridge (£52m)
The Olympics had its own budget of which the GLA contributed around 8%, mostly from council tax.
Perseverantia omnia vincit,
my friend.
I see no mention of Baker St. There are plans for lifts there in the TFL website.
That’s because the list of stations above is of those where work is underway.
Back in Autumn 2019, the waiting room at Burnt Oak tube closed as part of prep for SFA. No posters or other formal notices were given, the planning application was unreadable and in any event allowed no public comments due to the rules it was made under. A tiny amount of work was done into 2020 albeit a large chunk of the adjoining car park was taken over for access etc. Nothing happened throughout the rest of 2020, and quietly before the end of the year the plant etc vanished and the car park was handed back. Tfl took months to say that in effect the project is off. The waiting room remains closed .
What happened to the other stations announced back in 2018? Boston Manor, Burnt Oak, Hanger Lane, North Ealing, Northolt, Park Royal, Rickmansworth, Ruislip and Snaresbrook.
https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/further-13-stations-to-go-step-free
The saga of these lifts has been horrendous. The money wasted, enormous.
The staff who idled their time away scandalous. I have waited twelve years for this step free access so that I do not have to carry my bike over the bridge when I return to Amersham from London. I am glad I have lived long enough and now we are in lock down, so will not be able to enjoy it for some time.
Who is accountable for this sorry, long drawn out project? They will surely be Knighted
If you know the money was wasted and staff wasted time, then having done the necessary research to know those facts, you already know who is accountable for the project. So why ask here for their name?
Did the lift shaft result in the loss of the K8 gpo kiosk that was always sited here? Does anyone know if it was relocated elsewhere on the station or if it was just junked? K8 kiosks are so rare and so few are listed.