STEP UP WILLESDEN GREEN

Whilst taking the busy morning train to the city at Willesden Green station, it only takes a few moments to start noticing the first people of the day struggling to use the stairs.

 

It can be a group of friends, shades and flip flops on, desperately trying to make their flights, battling with the heavy suitcases with the ominous sound of the tube doors beeping to close. Sometimes, it can be an elderly or less able passenger that prefer standing on the side, too worried to slow down the flood of grumpy people rushing home after an exhausting day. Most of the time, there are young moms with pushchairs in tow taking their babies to their first day out. The 30 steps from the entrance to the platform become a steep and tricky hill with every step becoming its own mini obstacle.  Is this really how Willesden Green want to treat its commuters?

 

Romi Rodriquez, 34 is a local mom that feels the lack of an accessible station daily: “I struggled so much during maternity leave to go out. I was terrified of going into the station and not finding a kind soul to give me a hand with the buggy”.

 

“I stayed in many afternoons because I was scared to travel alone with a baby and not being able to manage. If there was a lift in the station, we also wouldn’t need to drive everywhere and it would contribute to reducing pollution levels” she says.

 

Willesden Green is a growing area that is welcoming more and more new households. Since 2001

the population increased by 2,851 persons, from 12,736 in 2001 to 15,587. Families are settling here and welcoming new babies. In fact, the number of 0-4 years old increased by 59.9% in 2011.

 

Alexa Indie, 35, flight attendant and mother says: “Willesden Green is my closest station but I end up always going all the way to Kilburn. It would mean the world for me to have a step-free station. I wouldn’t have to leave my house earlier”.

 

So why isn’t Willesden Green step-free?

The Mayor of London is investing on a £200m project aiming to make 40% of the London Underground step-free by March 2020. Later on, the government removed TFL’s operational grant leaving TFL the only transport authority in Europe without government subsidy for running cost.

 

Willesden Green station was left out of the project with the Mayor of London says: “it is possible that it may be included at a later date if circumstances change, for example, if funding becomes available from a third party.”

The favourable location of the station situated between zone 2 and 3, only a few steps from the heart of London, is the best place for people needing easy access to the busy and expensive city. It is also situated near the high street, next to residential areas, shops and community hubs and places of worships like mosques and churches. Because of its central location, the station is heavily used with 8.8 million journeys made per year.

 

The local community urges to have a station that people could use to travel easily and comfortably not only for families but also for the elderly and those with reduced mobility.  

​

Juliana Cordeiro, 25, Health and Social Care student says: “My grandmother came to visit me for 3 months, she is 76 and was very difficult for her to get up and down the stairs. The Jubilee line is directly connected to central London, thousands of people travel every day, it definitely should be a step-free station”.

​

A non-accessible station is stopping lots of people from enjoying London and the local area. Romi Rodriquez speaks for one of her friends: “My neighbour Betty Lewis (84) can’t take the tube because she can’t take the stairs. She is not disabled so she doesn’t qualify to the call-a-ride scheme so she can’t really go out that much even though she says she’d love taking the tube again”.

​

Willesden Green is still being forgotten by the local council and the London Assembly. A non-accessible station means isolation, stress, frustration and discrimination. We want to change that.