Thursday 15 January 2009

Public transport travails

Finally took Paige on public transport yesterday -- tube and bus -- and must say, it takes military planning. Not only are you faced with the normal baby-related stuff (pack enough nappies, possible change of clothes, when/where will you be able to feed, etc...) but you also need to consider which stations (if any) are stroller-accessible.

You'd think in this age of disability-awareness, all would be (if a station is wheelchair accessible, then it's buggy-friendly as well) but no such luck. So to get to the hospital for her appointment, I needed to change lines just to make sure that when I got to Earl's Court station, I was on the line that has the lift (Piccadilly), not the one with the stairs (District.).

And according to this news release, only about a sixth of the tube stations are accessible - and they're on track to have 1/4 accessible by 2010. That's ridiculous! And looking at the map, most of the accessible stops are suburban -- making any central London visits a challenge at best.

Hmm... I wonder what other big-city subway accessibility is like... And in the meantime, buses are definitely the way to go.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stef, Buses sound like the best. The other option would be your sling and or a baby back pack and skip the pram