A step-free Drain

There is one lift at Waterloo from the arrival W&C platform to ticket hall level, giving step-free access between the two. This went into service 12/7/10.

On the departure side there is a ramp down from the ticket hall to the W&C platform, giving step-free access.

However, that doesn't cater for the fact that people might want to get from the ticket hall to the main line station/exit in a step-free manner.

yes its step free now - only bank will receive new lifts soon


guide for step free is outdated - no lift was mentioned - i need ask them to update it

www.directenquiries.com/information/Waterloo/74452/summary/information.aspx

i believe there used be step free route via old eurostar area - this would be reopened with new lifts

so either has no step free now but could be accessible for pushchairs but latter could be open for wheelchairs when new platforms are open but i believe TFL could install lifts - to make wheelchair access from other lines
means wheelchair would be on and off on this line more easier - just needs replace the ramp with new lift in departures because its graded very steep

at bank - i can confirm there is step free via travelators but in future - they won't need use this route to gain access - wheelchairs will use lifts at new entrance in few years time removing need of using travelators

i mean the exits from ticket hall - currently has steps to main ticket hall - no lift connecting to way out from main station - if the original step free is not opening soon

Do you mean travelator? I didn't know there was anything being translated there

From memory, while the travelator is the most immediate obstacle to a W&C extension from Bank, the gradients needed to pass under the Central Line and thread through the bank vaults and other tunnels en-route are the most significant.

@chris M - at the risk of setting the crayonistas off again, the extension of the W&C was something I did ask my engineering colleagues to consider in NSE days. They reported that it was just feasible to thread through the Central/Northern congeries of tunnels to get to Liverpool Street ( and on to Spitalfields, where English Partnerships were interested in paying for a new tube station). The travolator would certainly have had to go, although it might have been possible to place it in the present stairway instead; taking the travolator away would have permitted five car operation (possibly 6 with SDO), but finding depot accommodation would have been a headache. There has already been exhaustive discussion - some would say exhausting - on this forum about the revival of the 1913 plan to link the W&C and the GN&C but I believe that the extendadors have finally convinced themselves that XR is in the way at Moorgate.

@futureguy -At the time, English Partnerships were leading the redevelopment of the Spitalfields site and believed that a new tube station would be just the thing to make the project take off. they were prepared to put up around £150m (1993 prices). Their first preference was for a new station on the Central Line - greeted with understandable disinterest by LU -so the W&C option was a more workable option. Extending beyond Spitalfields up the Lea valley slow lines would have been my preferred option for further extension - LU's own analysis showed that a tube extension along that routeing was financially viable and, given that a Victoria branch from Northumberland Park was unsustainable, a W&C extension would have dealt satisfactorily with a number of issues (and would have opened up options for a new depot). Any progress was rolled by privatisation, however; I dare say that a long extension to the W&C under BRB control would almost certainly have led to institutional issues probably precipitating the transfer of the line to LU anyway.

Thinking had not developed as to the possibility of any southern extension. Although the crayonistas love the option of Clapham Junction, the line points south/south east at Waterloo, and given the failure to get the Jubilee/Fleet line into SE London to relieve London Bridge and the Dartford Loops, that could have been a logical destination. [remember that in those days, XR was only going to Shenfield].

@futureguy-many have suggested CLJ as a possible W&C destination and in traffic terms, it makes a lot of sense. Technically, however, it would require something like a 120 degree turn to enable it to point in the right direction - you'd have to pass quite close to Kennington in order to complete the turn. It is a pity about the Northern, it might have made better sense for XR2 to pass that way rather than via Chelsea.