DISABILITY campaigners have called for Norwood Junction to finally be given step-free access – but transport bosses have responded by telling wheelchair users to "get a bus".
The station, one of the busiest in south London, has six platforms but only one of which is accessible to wheelchair users and parents with buggies. There are no ramps or lifts in the entire station, which was used by more than 3.5 million people in 2012/13.
Transport for London (TfL), which operates the station with Network Rail because London Overground services run through it, has recently announced £75 million worth of funding for improvements to station accessibility.
Although Crossrail, tube and some Overground stations are part of the plans, Norwood Junction is not on its priority list. TfL says it is not possible to install lifts at the station because of the narrow design of its platforms – and has suggested those affected seek alternative modes of transport.
A TfL spokesman said: "Forty-two out of 83 London Overground stations are step-free and Norwood Junction has one platform which provides step-free access to northbound services.
"We would advise customers requiring step-free access to southbound services to use our accessible bus network to connect to other London Overground step-free stations that are close by, such as West Croydon or Anerley."
Kathy Bee, South Norwood councillor and cabinet member for transport, said that "in this day and age" the accessibility of the station was "not good enough".
She added: "It is something I am acutely aware of through personal experience. My brother is a wheelchair user and when he comes to visit you can only access one of the platforms."
Platform One, the only to have step-free access, takes passengers in the direction of London. However, those unable to use the steps who want to go in the direction
of Croydon or Sutton have to make do with getting the tram or the bus.
And a disabled passenger coming from the direction of London who wants to alight at Norwood Junction would have to travel past it to East Croydon before getting a train back just so they could get off at Norwood Junction.
Steve O'Connell, Greater London Assembly member for Croydon and Sutton, wrote to TfL last week about the situation.
He said: "It is absurd that such a strategic and well-used station has no step free access."
He added that he would be putting a question to Mayor of London Boris Johnson about the station.
Chris Stapleton, a volunteer for campaign group Transport for All, said the station was one which should be viewed as in the high-priority category for London.
Mr Stapleton, a wheelchair user himself, said: "It's very frustrating for disabled people. It means going by bus and it takes three times as long.
"The amount of stations without step-free access in London is not good enough if you look at somewhere like Berlin, where the proportion of stations with step-free access is much higher."
John Hickman, a local historian, is attempting to halt a proposal by Woodside councillor Paul Scott to have the station's name changed from Norwood Junction to South Norwood, one which he said would prove far too expensive.
He points to the station's historic lack of accessibility for the disabled as a key reason for his objection. He added: "What good is it speculatively attracting businesses and investment when a young mum, struggling with an infant in a buggy, shopping bags over the handle and a youngster in the other hand, can't manage the stairs?"
CASE STUDY: 'We've given up using Norwood Junction'
ROSE GREGORY, 84, has had to travel in a wheelchair whenever she leaves the house since February because she has a brain aneurysm and can only walk a few paces.
Her daughter Meg Fretwell, 51, says accessibility at the station has made life very difficult and is affecting her mother's quality of life.
She added: "My mum likes to go shopping in Sutton but I now have to walk her all the way down to Harrington Road tram stop, get that to Croydon and then get another train from there.
"It's very frustrating because we have a station which could take us there directly at the end of our road."
Mrs Fretwell said she would also like to take her mum up to see Highbury and Islington, where she was originally from, on the Overground.
"I would like to do that but then I can only get up to town from platform one," she said.
"Coming back I'd have to take a very long way round, it's a bit of a pain in the a**e."
Mrs Fretwell said she also felt sorry for parents who had to carry their children's prams and shopping, having raised two children herself.
She said: "It's ridiculous for such a busy station to not have this in place by now."
