Small station, wheelchair accessible, but with some difficulties for wheelchair users
4
4
Date of visit: January 2023
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: disabled toilet
Overall Rating
Good
This station, a small and separate annex to the main Waterloo Station, can be used by wheelchair users, but not everything is ideal.
Disabled Access In and Around
Average
The only way to get into Waterloo East Station step-free is via the pedestrian footbridge from Waterloo Station, which is served by a spacious lift from the main concourse at Waterloo. The station entrance in Sandell Street is not step-free. Having arrived at Waterloo East, the only way to get from the concourse to the platforms is via VERY steep and long pedestrian ramps - see my photo below. These ramps are too steep to be safe and usable for any but the strongest and most determined manual wheelchair users, and it would be possible to lose control on the sharp downward descent. With a powerchair I had no difficulty. Staff are available to assist with boarding/alighting trains with a manual boarding ramp, but they sometimes deploy the ramps incorrectly and unsafely, putting passengers at risk of accident and serious injury, and a few of the staff are shockingly rude.
Parking & Transport
Average
Getting to Waterloo East: all National Rail services at the main station, Waterloo, have step-free access, and there is a pedestrian bridge, with lifts, to get you from Waterloo to Waterloo East. On London Underground, only the Jubilee Line has step-free access at Waterloo. The Northern and Bakerloo lines at Waterloo (a major London terminus!), are no-go areas for wheelchair users. Many buses serve Waterloo Station. I wouldn't dream of trying to park in this area.
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
There is an excellent accessible toilet on the middle pair of platforms, spacious, well-designed, accessible by RADAR key. It is refreshing to find such an excellent toilet on the railway network.
Staff
Poor
Staff on ticket barrier duty are friendly, cheerful and helpful. Some platform staff are friendly and keen to help, others are shockingly and disgustingly rude. A few platform staff have absolutely no idea how to deploy a manual boarding ramp safely and legally, and are putting passenger safety at risk of accident and serious injury - they do not secure the ramp to the train floor as is their legal obligation, so that the ramp rests loosely on the doorplate and could easily slide off and crash to the platform floor during use. This sort of accident can lead to serious injury for wheelchair users and also for bystanders.
Additional Information
There is some very handsome Victorian brickwork on the middle pair of platforms. Given the lack of safety awareness by a few staff at this station, I am reluctant to use the station in future. I do not wish to come crashing down onto the platform on a ramp which has not been secured to the train while in use.
