Disability campaigners are holding a 'legacy torch relay' today to highlight the fact that Crossrail won't be fully accessible.
Seven stations – Taplow, Langley, Iver, Hanwell, Maryland, Manor Park and Seven Kings – won't have step free access. Transport for All has estimated figures that it would cost as little as 0.2% of the project budget to be made fully accessible by, say, adding lifts.
Mayor Boris Johnson got caught out last month when Ade Adepitan asked him live on air whether Crossrail would be fully accessible, saying "they're going to be [fitted with lifts]". His office issued a clarification a few days later, admitting Boris has asked "TfL and Network Rail to look into additional opportunities to improve this further" but can't actually force it through. (Though he was still saying he's "insisting" on it during today's #askboris Twitter session; someone from City Hall needs to have a word, we think.)
A year on from the opening of the Paralympics, it is astonishing that new transport infrastructure, and one as high profile as Crossrail, won't be fully available for everyone to use.
Photo by Louis Berk from the Londonist Flickr pool