A new website offers help to tube, DLR or Overground passengers who need step-free access to platforms.
Three years ago, Transport for London began openly releasing its data feeds to any developer who cared to use them. This resulted in a proliferation of apps and services to help travellers find the gap till the next train, the last train, lines have engineering works and other information.
But here's a new website that we don't think anyone else has done yet — including TfL itself — even though the data is readily available. updownlondon.com gives a really simple snapshot of accessible options that are currently out of order. For example, it will tell you if a lift is broken, meaning that there's no step-free access at a given station. The site automatically updates every 30 seconds with previous issues coming under 'resolved' at the bottom.
Tube passengers could access this information already, but problems were buried deep in TfL's station information pages, or given out in easily missed Tweets.
UpDownLondon is the work of developer Kirk Northrop, and Christiane Link — a journalist and wheelchair user herself. The project is inspired by updownvienna.com, a similar tool that shows broken lifts of Vienna's Underground.
You can follow them at @tubelifts, as well, to get it in your twitter feed.
