TfL proposal for CP5 Access for All funding: SEVEN SISTERS

Station characteristics Seven Sisters is a busy station on the West Anglia route in the London Borough of Haringey in north east London. It has an annual footfall of 3.0m passengers, making it one of the 150 busiest stations in Great Britain (ORR 2011/12 data). However, it is likely that this figure is an underestimate as London Underground data indicates that 5.5m LU passengers per year are interchanging between the Victoria line and National Rail services at Seven Sisters. Passengers can also interchange with London Overground services via South Tottenham station which is nearby – this station will be step-free by 2014 using Access for All programme mid-tier funding. There are two bus stops in the vicinity of the station, one of which is already fully accessible with the other programmed to be made accessible in the 2013/14 financial year.

Catchment area TfL analysis using 2011 Census data shows that there are 11800 people living within the 960m catchment area of Seven Sisters station who are under the age of 4, over the age of 65, or have a disability which limits their day-to-day activities either ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’. This is a relatively high number of people in these categories for stations in London. The station serves St Anne’s Hospital which is approximately 750m away, as well as Tynemouth Medical Practice, Tottenham Green leisure centre, a college, a primary school and a library.

Proximity to other step-free stations Whilst the nearest step-free station will be very close to Seven Sisters once step-free access is provided at South Tottenham, making Seven Sisters step-free will help address a long distance without any step-free stations on the Southbury loop (none of the stations between Liverpool Street and Edmonton Green (also to be delivered using mid-tier Access for All funding) are step-free.

Policy and TOC support Seven Sisters is identified as a priority for step-free access in the Mayor’s Accessibility Implementation Plan (see Figure 16). The current Station Facility Owner (SFO), Greater Anglia, is supportive of this scheme being included in the Access for All programme in CP5. The DfT has agreed in principle for powers over most services at Seven Sisters to be devolved to the Mayor from 2015, and TfL’s concessionaire would become the SFO for Seven Sisters from this time.

Proposed scheme TfL procured consultants to design and cost a scheme to provide step-free access at Seven Sisters station. The proposal is to install lifts in the areas of vegetation behind the subway to platforms 1 and 2. The lifts would extend up to the back of each platform with connecting landings at platform level. A concept drawing and visualisation of one of the lifts is shown overleaf. The proposal has been costed using actual rates that have been quoted for delivery of the schemes funded by the mid-tier Access for All programme. The cost of making Seven Sisters step free is estimated at £2.7m including 25% contingency. Full details of the scheme are available on request.

Business case An assessment of the value for money of this scheme has been carried out using a methodology based on that developed by Steer Davies Gleave for the DfT. The benefit- cost ratio of the scheme is calculated as 2.2 to 1 on this basis, demonstrating that the scheme offers good value for money.

Concept drawing

Visualisation