London Underground help please

[GingerAle1]

HiI've had really good advice from the MN collective before on this and need to ask again, the TFL disability phone line cuts me off.

Due to vertigo and other visual problems, I can't use escalators. Stairs are fine.

Tomorrow morning I need to get to a meeting in Swiss Cottage, I will be travelling from Snaresbrook on the central line there and back and my DH will collect me from a friend's house there.

I think I can change on to the Jubilee line at either Stratford or Bond Street without needing to use an escalator. I think I can then go to either St John's Wood or Finchkey Road and use steps. Does anyone know if this is correct?

I can then get a bus to the venue which is nearest to Swiss Cottage.

Really grateful if anyone knows this for sure, the TFL site isn't always clear or reliable.

Thank you.

Hopeful bump

you are definitely ok with Snaresbrook to Stratford. When the train arrives at Stratford both sides of the train doors will open. Exit on the left hand side and follow the walkway, there are both stairs and escalators down to the jubilee line.

I think you are correct that both St John’s Wood and Finchley Road have steps. Haven’t used either In a while but used West Hampstead the other day and it was steps.. all those jubilee stations are similar in layout.

Swiss Cottage station has stairs

Tfl website and others say it has escalator from platform to ticket hall?

thank you Dancers

If you google pictures of Swiss Cottage tube, it has stairs in the middle in between the escalators

If you Google photos of Swiss Cottage station it has the stairs in between the escalators. That’s how I remember it. Same as St John’s Wood. Finchley Road just has stairs (and not as deep)

I winder if they are out of use as the tfl website essentially says you can't do that journey without escalators.

How odd. I wonder why they would be out of use!
if you are going to do sjw or Finchley Road the latter has the shorter walk up

Thanks
if I'm there early enough I could try Swiss Cottage and then retreat if the stairs are out of use. So much wrong info online.

not very impressed with Tfl disability help. I got stuck at London Bridge once when the stairs were out of use and the staff said it's a very common problem and were really helpful (they actually unlocked the stair gate).

Snaresbrook has steps change at Stratford and exit on the left hand side in the direction of travel in coach 2 there should be a walkway to a lift to get down to jubilee line platforms and take that to Swiss Cottage where there is 60 steps to street level situation in the middle of two
Escalators

Finchley Road is less than ten minutes walk from Swiss Cottage. So if you’re unsure, just go to Finchley Road which also has as much shorter staircase. Depending on the exact location of the meeting, you might not even need to get a bus.

Swiss Cottage has a much longer staircase and it’s between two escalators. I can’t remember how long ago, but there was some repair work happening on one of the escalators so one of them was closed for a while, so maybe this affected the stairs for some reason? If you go to Finchley Road it’s much more certain and you won’t be worrying about it.

By the way, the escalators and stairs at Swiss Cottage are about 60 stairs up to the ticket office level, but then there’s about 25 more stairs to get outside to street level so it all adds up. So another reason to go to Finchley Road.

TFL can be responsive on twitter - its the embarrassment factor probably.

I find the station staff on the underground helpful when it comes to disability info which doesn't fit neatly into "wheelchair" or "VI". Individual staff have even checked with other stations when I've asked for advice.

The organisation is a lot less helpful (but they do send me lots of glossy mailings telling me how great they are).

Or get the overground from Stratford to Finchley Road & Frognal

I've found Twitter very hit and miss, depends who is on perhaps.

what is the embarrassment factir?

Thank you.

TFL press office and the Mayors office spend a lot of time and money telling the public how wonderful they are for Londoners of all types and how great they are for accessibility etc.

The reality is very different - having that pointed out publicly is bad PR and I've found they respond, especially if you cite their latest self congratulations post with the issue.

At least the staff on the ground tend to be less obsessed with PR and more concerned with helping customers.

I use Swiss Cottage a lot and I have never noticed stairs instead of escalators. They definitely do have escalators though. I thought St John’s Wood also has escalators. However as others have said, Finchley Road definitely is stairs only and then it is only a 10 min walk or 2 min bus ride. Also as someone else has suggested overland from Stratford to Finchley Road overland. It’s similar journey time but the bus down to Swiss Cottage will take slightly longer.

Baker Street via the Metropolitan or Circle line is steps only, then a bus goes to Swiss Cottage (13?).

So Snaresbrook to Stratford, train to Liverpool Street, steps to Met/Circle line, then to Baker Street, then bus. Definitely no escalator.

Most of the older tube stations have 2 escalators and stairs in between - Swiss Cottage does but they may be working on one escalator so the stairs become down and the remaining escalator is up. I would have thought for fire escape purposes stairs are necessary.

Def overland from stratford to f and f - if you are happy to walk a bit along finchley rd. Way nicer and easier!

Just to update for anyone who might share this problem
I left early with the plan to move along to Finchley Road if there were issues.

Stairs at Swiss Cottage were open. No idea why the tfl website wouldn't take me that route.

thank you all very much for your help, I find London quite hard to navigate in this way, though interestingly every time I've talked to staff, they've been great and said it's a common problem.