Paddington station works completed ahead of schedule
The installation of lifts is great news for our customers, as it increases parts of the network open to wheelchair users and other customers who require step free access
Works to rebuild the Hammersmith & City side of Paddington Underground station has been completed ahead of schedule.
The works included the installation of lifts giving customers step free access from the new ticket hall to the Circle and Hammersmith & City line platforms.
This side of the station has been rebuilt as part of London Underground's (LU) station capacity programme and as well new lifts, the station now boasts a new entrance from the Paddington Basin side of the station, a spacious new station concourse and ticket hall, better access to the mainline concourse, two new stairways, improved CCTV, extended platforms to accommodate new, longer air-conditioned trains.
Gareth Powell, LU's Director of Strategy and Service Development, said: `The installation of lifts is great news for our customers, as it increases parts of the network open to wheelchair users and other customers who require step free access.
'Customers have already seen huge improvements as each phase of the works has been completed including a new station entrance and concourse but also from the newly extended platforms that accommodate the new longer air conditioned trains that have been rolling out across the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.
`Over 60,000 people use the station every day and this is set to rise following the completion of the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines' upgrade and the arrival of Crossrail in 2018, coupled with the regeneration of the local area which will create more homes and jobs.
'We have built a station fit for the future to provide sufficient capacity for this expected increase in demand.'
Along with the new lifts, Paddington station is also being served by new state-of-the-art, air conditioned trains, which have been introduced across the Circle and Hammersmith & City line since 2010.
They have dedicated spaces for wheel chair users and a low-floor design for improved access between train and platform.
LU is investing millions of pounds in making the Tube network more accessible through new trains, lifts, raised platform sections and other improvements.
Works to replace lifts at Edgware Road station on the Bakerloo line have also been completed.
While the station was closed other improvements were completed to minimise the disruption to passengers including repair and refurbishment work on the roof, drainage pipes, render on platforms, ticket hall and stairs, electrics and lighting.
Notes to editors:
- More than 60,000 passengers currently use the Hammersmith & City station every day
- Paddington's Hammersmith & City station is one of the oldest stations on the network and was part of the first ever Tube section that started operating between Farringdon and Paddington in 1863
Circle & Hammersmith & City line services both serve the station - Both lines are currently being upgraded as part of the Sub-Surface Rail (Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines) upgrade which will see new tracks, trains and signalling
- Fifty three new air conditioned trains are currently being introduced on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines They are seven carriages long, one carriage longer than the current trains
- In December 2009 LU extended the Circle line from Edgware Road to Hammersmith, along the Hammersmith & City tracks. This enabled the running of trains more frequently between Edgware Road and Hammersmith. Now, there are twice as many trains running on this section of the line