why would you risk our child by putting them in their pram/buggy on an escalator? when it specifically says not to??

[slartybartfast]

can't understand why people would take risk.
i realise the lifts can be a pita
but really

I wouldn't do it if there was a lift - that's just silly. But if there isn't a lift and the alternative is 96 steps then yes I'd get DH to take the buggy on the escalator.

I actually rang up TFL to see how I could use the underground with a buggy and was surprised to hear the suggestion that I could use about 5 bus changes instead as there was no route where I could get there with a lift. It would have taken hours literally!

In addition, at some stops like Tottenham Court road there is no escalator out of the station just narrow steep steps. I remember on one occasion taking my 12 month old out the buggy holding her in one arm and dragging the buggy with the other up the 40 or so steps. Although the steps were packed both ways it was only half way up a nice guy helped me up even though he was going down as I was going up. I gave the people behind me some filthy looks!!

In the shop where I work, there is a sign saying do not use the escalator with a buggy/pushchair. FWIW if you did have an accident while doing so you would not be covered by the stores insurance. The main safety issue aas we were told is that if the fire alarm goes off, the escalator stops very suddenly.

I did it all the time with my two, never had a problem. Maybe you should mind your own business

I do it. The wheels on my Stokke xplory are designed for stairs - the back ones flip under the front ones

Bag of Holly-I too have the Stokke Explory, and there is no way I could manage vast stairs or escalators with it, it's just too heavy and cumbersome! I find the wheels often "shunt" when I am navigating even small steps, as the width of the wheels means it doesn't clear the stair tread. Tell me where I am going wrong, please. I only use it for walking, occasionally brave the bus if there is no one else with a buggy there and have taken it on trains, but have needed the help of a passer by if the gap between the train and the platform was great

The thing is ... if lots of London mothers manage fine on the Underground, then ... why so different on other escalators? Surely, if I child is securely strapped in, and you are holding securely and safely, even if the escalator were to halt abruptly there isn;t that much that can go amiss? Though, of course, I'm thinking, again, of the LU, where you are wedged like immobile sardines. Safer than a bus - these have a nasty habit of sudden stops, that send people sprawling in an alarming way.

Have been thinking about other scenarios where there is an escalator/lift choice and possible en-buggied situation, and have come up with Gap, John Lewis, and Marks and Spencer. In those, I always used the lift because it would have been a. longer and b. looked "odd" somehow to schlep up the escalators with a buggy when there are lifts.

I did it on the tube twice a week when I took DS to his CMs. Lifts are rare.

Omce a woman in front of me got her buggy slightly stuck on the escalator. She panicked, I leaned over and lifted her buggy off the escalator. Had I not been there it could have been pretty unpleasant.

I was aware before then that it was potentially quite dangerous, but after that I was especially careful to keep my wits about me and make sure I paid close attention to what I was doing.

The alternative (holding on to my uncooperative, prone to running off, young toddler while folding the buggy, then carrying all my bags, child and buggy up an escalator at rush hour) didn't seem like much of one.

The other alternative (don't take the tube) would have turned a 40 minute journey into an hour and a half bus journey to take DS to the CMs before work.

Having said that it probably is really unsafe.

I've gone for a different solution now, I've moved out of London

Another londoner who does it all the time. TBH its a relief that there is an escalator because otherwise I have to heft my ds up the stairs in his buggy (I have not managed to carry him and the buggy separately). My local tube station has far too many steps and I would love it if it had escalators. None of the tube stations I go to regularly have lifts so I pretty much have no option.

slarty with wheelchairs you just do not do the underground full stop few stations have lifts and even fewer of those lifts work and theres still a step up/down of the tube

I did it if I had to in the tube. They can't fall out if they are strapped in

I do it all the time - TBH if you are sensible and careful about your risk management it is fine. Ensuring child is securely strapped in etc- is basic common sense. I am constantly on the underground with my DD going up and down escalators and it is never a problem to me so in shopping centres etc- I do the same. I remember being in the Tate modern once wanting to go up and lift after lift was jammed with perfectly ambulatory people who could very easily have got escalators or taken the stairs so it was escalators there too!

JamisAgain it's not about them falling out, it's about part of the buggy getting trapped in the escalator, for example the woman in front of me I mentioned - when she got to the top of the escalator, the buggy wasn't lined up straight, it caught the side wall and got wedged. Meanwhile the escalator was still moving, and lots of people were coming up behind them. Had I not grabbed hold of the buggy and moved it (she had panicked and was flapping) then I hate to think what woudl have happened next.

Never any bother with escalators here either. We're Londoners but don't really get the tube much as we're better served with overground and buses. The length and height of escalators on the tube scares me a bit sometimes but we've always used them. Just strap em in tight and concentrate on what's going on and I think it's ok.

Ok threefeethigh. I didn't realise that. I was just responding to what someone said about the risk f them falling out.

TBH it's something I avoided when I could, but sometimes in London it was the least bad option, especially if you have a baby and a toddler as I did

My brother got his shoelace trapped in an escalator when we were kids. I've this memory of his foot being pulled towards the gap where the steps go in again. Luckily, my mum being -tight- thrifty had bought his shoes a bit big so he got his foot out in time.

Broke the escalator though .

I've done it going up escalators a couple of times but never going down as I'm too scared

I have somehow managed to avoid using the tube (apart from a couple of times when DS was a baby - then I just used a sling) even though I live in London - this is completely down to my fear of taking the buggy on the escalator. I wish I was brave enough as it would make life a lot less complicated but I just can't bring myself to push the buggy on to to the down escalator - I'm sure I'd end up doing DS an injury.

I was in a department store a few months ago and a woman stepped on to the 'down' escalator with her baby in a buggy, only she tripped and the buggy did a somersault down the escalator. It was awful to watch, as there was absolutely nothing anyone could do. An ambulance was called but luckily baby seemed ok, although mum was hysterical.

I think if you concentrate on what you are doing and ensure your buggy is lined up correctly, keep an eye on when you get on and off and who is in front of and behind you e.g. give slow moving people a wide birth, wait until the majority of other people getting off tube have gone up, I never travel in rush hour, then I think it is okay myself. As I say i've been doing it for 3 odd years and never had one problem. I let my DD stand on the escalator next to me holding hands the other day and that was much more scary even when my other half was taking the buggy

what lifts?

a woman in our debenhams almost 4 yrs ago went up 3 escalators with her 5 week old son not strapped into his car seat part of the travel system, on the third escalator the travel system jammed at the top and somehow or other her son fell out and landed on the floor below luckily the wee babe was fine but his mother got a talking to from our area manager who was doing her xmas review at the time and bloody well deserved it was!!

makes me shudder to think what may have happened and from then on the seasonal team members who are near the escalators have to direct ppl to the lifts for H and S.

I did it once.

In a panic when newly potty trained DD1 suddenly announced she needed a wee in the middle of BHS where I can NEVER find the lift to the toilets.

I hoyed her on the escalator with DD2 in the buggy as well.

Never again!

I remember being in Woolies when DS 18 months. With friend and her nearly 2yoDD. DS announced he'd done a wee and was hungry so we decided to go upstairs to toilet and changing room and cafe upstairs for lunch. Lift broken so we folded up strollers and were about to board escalator. Strollers had the strap for carrying over shoulder.

Staff member stopped us and said we couldn't take buggy up escalator so I asked her to take them up store service life for us.Apparently the lift broke often. She wanted us to leave them but no safe buggy place just abandon them at bottom.

We pointed out they were designed for carrying and asked where stairs were. Nope said we couldn't do that.

I mentioned it was silly putting services for children/babies up stairs if they weren't going to actually let you up.