Crossrail Demo Today at Hanwell Station

Protest at lack of step free access

A demonstration will be held at Hanwell station today over the issue of the lack of disabled access planned for the Crossrail service.

Hanwell is one of seven stations on the Crossrail network that will have access only by stairs. Campaigners say this will reduce the use of the station for disabled, elderly, people with very young children and heavy luggage.

In order to make the remaining seven Crossrail stations step-free there would need to be 19-30 lifts added to the network (including two at Hanwell).  Based on an estimate of around £1M per lift, the total cost to Crossrail would be £19-30million or 0.1-0.2% of their total budget.  Campaigners say this is a feasible request.

Transport for All  wants a fully acessible transport network and has prepared a document outlining the case. It can be viewed here (pdf)

Meanwhile, Hanwell Community Forum is campaigning for:

- Lifts to make the platforms accessible for all, not just the able-bodied;  including parents with pushchairs and young children; people travelling with heavy luggage; the elderly and others with mobility problems and, of course, wheelchair users

- At least four trains per hour in each direction (at present Crossrail will not increase our train frequency from two trains per hour in each direction)

- A Sunday Service (at present there is no Sunday Service at Hanwell - they want at least two trains per hour on a Sunday)

- Re-open the south entrance into Station Approach (which was closed at least 20 years ago -technology has moved on considerably since then) to improve access to everyone living south of the station

- Selective Door Opening so that the platforms do not have to be extended with the associated damage to the embankment and loss of the valuable visual and sound-proofing  provided by mature trees.

The demo will take place on 29th August at 10am

After the demonstration at Hanwell, there will be a torch-lit procession to Brentford station. The group will then take the train to Waterloo and then onto Crossrail’s offices in Canary Wharf where they will converge with a similar demonstration from Seven Kings.

28th August 2013