Making Mile End Station Step-free - TfL Consultation closes Thursday 10th February

(Map adapted from www.ianvisits.co.uk)

TfL currently have a live consultation "Help shape the future step-free access to the tube" which closes on Thursday 10th February. 

Many locals would like to see Mile End Station become step-free and the above consultation offers you a chance to influence that. Whilst the survey doesn't directly allow you to select Mile End Station, your answers and postcode etc will help. You can also add a comment in the free-flowing box to question 16 mentioning Mile End.

It also asks if you want toilets at stations - this is a pet peeve of mine. I think ALL stations should have a loo. With the closing of ticket offices they have the space, if not always the plumbing, although the staff have toilets. If McDonalds can have public toilets so can we at our stations. 

The survey can be completed online in around 10 minutes or you can email haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk

Why Mile End?

Mile End is the third busiest tube station in the borough (only Canary Wharf and Tower Hill are busier) with around 24,595 entries and 22,390 exits per day* and a total of 15.75  million entries/exits per year, making it the 51st busiest station on the network (out of 268) and one of the 20 busiest outside of Zone 1.

(*Answers on a postcard as to why Entry and Exit figures don't match!).

It is a very busy interchange too.

With the large QMUL campus nearby, having the nearest station accessible is important to students and staff alike.

As most new developments in Tower Hamlets are now car-free, growing numbers of residents rely on the tube to travel around London. 

How practical would it be to implement?

That's for the engineers to work out! They could at least do a feasibility study.

The above station layout suggests that it might be possible with lifts from the platform to the ticket hall area and then a second lift possibly from where the current staff office is to the street (the existing staff area could move to where the bricked up old ticket office is. Alternatively, access via the eastern end of the stations via Maplin St (by the Rusty Bike) might be feasible.