Friends of the Rail Forum

Crossrail to install UK’s first inclined lifts

Aaron Morby | Mon 30th July | 6:24
Construction Enquirer

Crossrail will pioneer the use of incline lifts to deliver step-free access at two of the major central London stations.

Four innovative incline lifts will run alongside escalators at Farringdon and Liverpool Street Crossrail stations where it is not possible to install vertical lifts.

London Underground will also install an incline lift at Greenford station by 2014.

The new inclined lift are part of a wider £45m order from Crossrail and Transport for London for 54 lifts placed with manufacturer Kone, which includes 22-years maintenance.

The firm beat Otis Fujitec Stannah and Schindler to take the lift contract, which will see 49 fitted during the Crossrail project and five new lifts for Bank, Greenford and Hammersmith Tube stations.

As tipped in Construction Enquirer, Crossrail and TfL also confirmed it has placed the largest escalator contract let in the UK with Otis.

Under the £190m deal Otis will supply and fit over 100 escalators, 59 of which are destined for Crossrail.

It will be interesting to see how a "lift" is different from a "small funicular". There's one of the latter by the millennium footbridge across the Thames near St Paul's Cathedral and the WWII fire-fighters memorial, and I must say that to the uninitiated it looks very much like an "inclined lift".