Pushchairs on escalators

[Orissiah]

Excuse the stupid question but I am going on the London Underground on Monday for the first time (alone) with my six week old baby in her pram (she faces me in her Bugaboo Bee).

How should I balance the pram on the escalators (this question would apply to a shopping mall with escalators too!)?

Also, I'm expecting to ask a random person to help me carry the buggy down the stairs into the Tube station itself. But how do you negotiate stairs?

Thanks,
O

I was in Harrods the other day, they have poles in the middle of the top/bottom of escalators to prevent you taking them on there! Also after that i walked down to H&M and saw a child tip backwards out of a buggy on an escalator and bag their head! I do not think escalators are safe places for pushchairs!

lottie - I will always use lifts if they are available but they are not always. How did the child tip out? Wasn't it strapped in?

Sorry, haven't read every post so apologies if this has been said already - get the disabled access map - available online at www.tfl.gov.uk as it lists all the stations with step free access, ie. lift. I've used my Bugaboo Frog escalators for last four years without incident but I know inside out which tubes are the easiest to navigate and I tend to use the same ones on my circuit and avoid those that I either know are difficult or I'm not sure of.

Also, if you take buses, not sure how wide the Bee's wheels are but the Frog quite often won't fit through the first section of the bus so you need to get on at the back.

Do you know what route you'll be taking?

I think the child wasnt strapped in... a horrible thud and lots of screaming... parent saying "its ok" when it plainly wasnt ok!!! I turned to the lady next to me and said thats why you either fold up buggies on escs or dont use them on them!!

sorry just looked at my first post again should be "bang" not bag

Only had time to skim read first part of thread so apologies if it's already been said but:

1. Get people to help you with buggy etc on escalator itself. I've waylaid the LU staff and asked them to help by either standing in front of buggy or holiding it while I stand in front (not one for rush hour though)

1. If can't do 1, take the baby out and ask someone who looks likely to push empty buggy up / down escalator

1. Going up is OK as the buggy is braced against the higher step in front. Going down is the only scary bit (and gets ok with practice)

1. Using sling good but not if you want to do lots of shopping etc

I've found that people are usually happy to help (or too polite not to) providing you are not trying to travel before 10 or between 4.30 and 6.30. After all, you'd help someone out if they asked, wouldn't you?

HTH.

Only had time to skim read first part of thread so apologies if it's already been said but:

1. Get people to help you with buggy etc on escalator itself. I've waylaid the LU staff and asked them to help by either standing in front of buggy or holiding it while I stand in front (not one for rush hour though)

1. If can't do 1, take the baby out and ask someone who looks likely to push empty buggy up / down escalator

1. Going up is OK as the buggy is braced against the higher step in front. Going down is the only scary bit (and gets ok with practice)

1. Using sling good but not if you want to do lots of shopping etc

I've found that people are usually happy to help (or too polite not to) providing you are not trying to travel before 10 or between 4.30 and 6.30. After all, you'd help someone out if they asked, wouldn't you?

HTH.

You need the lightest possible buggy so that you can pick the whole thing up relatively easily if you have to. My Maclaren Volo weighs 3kg and I can pick it up by the straps at the back and the footrest strap.

However, I have something approaching a phobia about pushchairs and escalators (resulting from 24hrs in hospital in Geneva and a scar for life across my knee!) so I would actually take child out and carry them and sling the buggy across my back instead, reserving the buggy carrying for steps instead.

I wouldn't take a pushchair on an escalator certainly not a big one theres a reason they have signs saying no pushchairs!!! I seen a woman in Tesco the other day going up esculator and her baby was facing her in pushchair and was practically falling out of it and she was too busy talking to npotice.

Never had a problem with Bugaboo or my other pram (maclaren Techno). Obviously the child has to be strapped in unless you are insane. I go on frontways, and hold on tight to the handle pushing down and tipping the buggy towards me.
If you live in London and want to get around on the Tube you don't really have any choice - agree with mm22bbys totally.

Can I tell you my 'most embarrassing moment of the year' anecdote?
On a recent trip to London I ended up coming down the very steep escalator at Waterloo station with DS (especially so that he could go on the Underground. We'd stayed in London the night before so I had a fair sized backpack on. DS (who's 2.5) was too scared to stand on the escalator so had him under one arm and my pushchair (folded up) under the other. For some reason DS then decided to plunge his hand down my v-necked top revealing my electric blue bra (and most of one bosom) to all of the commuters coming up the adjoining escalator. I didn't have a hand free to stop him so had to grin and bear it while half of London admired my underwear.
Don't do it - get the bus!

LOL a judy finnegan tit oot moment thing is in Ldn folk have seen everything

i travel Ldn with a buggy,it can be done

How about you catch the bus instead of the tube?

The accessible bit on TFL is a bit misleading, as it rules out any stations with a few steps

Handy tube stations with lifts (that I know about), do feel free to add

Most on Jubilee Line south/east of Green Park (i.e. the new bit)
Covent Garden (but v. overcrowded station)
Russell Square
Goodge Street (Northern)
Warren St (V-line and Northern)
Hampstead
Chalk Farm

ones I think that do:
Holland Park
Lancaster Gate or Queensway
Shepherds Bush on Central line

Notting Hill Gate - district and circle is just stairs, so doable

I prefer to get a mainline to somewhere useful and walk. Central mainline stations are great generally, particularly if you live in South London

Like others I've just skim read this thread but I have two kids aged 4yrs and 11months respectively and have been lugging buggies on and off the tube for years. I prefer to go up the escalator backwards with the back wheels of the buggy on the step below me that way the baby stays flat without you having to support the whole weight of the buggy.
The buses are great but you really do need to be assertive. I do a very good line in politely shouting stating that I am getting on with a buggy and would they kindly clear some space. Normally people are very kind. I have even had groups of high school kids crowded around the doors get off the bus to give me space to get the buggy off and then get back on. I'm always very careful to say please and thank you as that level of consideration on their part deserves acknowledgement.
Slings are great when the baby is quite small but buggys have the edge if you need to carry changing bags plus shopping etc.
Well done for braving the Tube and if you see a slightly frazzled mum balancing a blue graco backwards up an escalator with a chatty four yr old boy in front of her give me a nod as you pass.

Holland Park has lift plus stairs - Shepherd's Bush is shut until October.

Re Enraha's post
Holland Park & Queensway - have lifts
Shepherds Bush (Central) - closed -had escalators (who knows after refurb)
Edgware Road (Bakerloo) - has lifts
Earls Court - has lifts
Paddington - has lifts

Why not just wear the baby? Sorry if this has already been said. I do use my lightweight cosatto on the tube, and bump up/ down steps without much problem, but wouldn't have done with a siz week old. Not sure I even used a pushchair at all with a six week old!!!

I travel on the tube all the time, mine is now 14 months but have done it from birth and on buses. Even if a tube has lifts that does not mean you have to not go up stairs, the only tube stations, and there are very few, earls court and kings cross are 2 of them, that you can change lines and get completely around are the ones that have wheelchair signs on the tube map, all the other ones you may have a lift but you'll also have stairs and no lift in places. I take my pram on escalators the whole time, I do it differently to chaz, when you go up put the pram on the step above you and you stand below so you are kind of lifting the pram. when you go down it rests on back wheels the front wheels hanging off at front. bugaboo bees might not be so bad on tube but basically a lot of london tube girls use a maclaran because the big bugaboo wheels don't fit easily on the escalators. you need baby to be strapped in, cot prams are no good on buses or tubes as when you tilt the pram the baby slides to the bottom and is so close to falling out when someone helps you up stairs. everyone will help you on stairs and ask if no one offers. bendy buses are better than double deckers as double deckers can only take 2 prams at one time.

re enraha's post - all Jubilee line stations south of GP have lifts. And north of that, Kilburn and Wembley Park do (handily I live at Kilburn

For step/escalator free interchanges (nb these only apply if you're taking two tubes heading basically in the same direction): Oxford Circus - Victoria/Bakerloo line
Baker St - Metropolitan line/Circle line and Bakerloo/Jubilee line
Green Park - only 8 stairs between Victoria/Jubilee lines

Please add others - I'd find it really useful

Oh and Westminster - Jubilee/District and Circle (but only Westbound D&C - both directions on Jubilee)

It is true that the underground map only marks which stations have no steps at all. But, Enraha and others, if you go to:

www.directenquiries.com/londonunderground.aspx?tab=Underground%20Stations&level=1

then it tells you about all the stairs as well- right down to the numbers of stairs in each flight and a photo!

I would be completely stuck if I didn't use the tube. With a six week old, I was more comfortable with a sling (not a Baby Bjorn, obviously, but a decent one- I love my Wilkinet). Now I take the pushchair, the lightest Maclaren I could find. Just take it slowly, and don't dangle anything on the back of it. Oh, and don't let anyone pickpocket you while you're concentrating on the pushchair.

On a hijacking note, anyone else who finds it easier to trot up and down steps with a sling might be interested in the London Summer Sling Show coming up this weekend:

www.summerslingshow.co.uk/

No I am not part of it- I just think it's a good opportunity to try out slings so we can all get out and about, and not feel marooned at home for fear of using public transport.

That is brilliant ds! It's the interchange bit that's so hard to find out about and I'd rather take a slightly longer route if it means I don't have to negotiate 5 flights of stairs en route

Save to favourites I think

I take my pram - a micralite on the escalators on the tube .

Originally I thought there was a knack to it but there isn't, you simply have to hold on tight.

When DD was small we did use a sling though

STOP GIVING ADVICE ON TECHNIQUES FOR TAKING BUGGIES ON ESCALATORS

DON'T DO IT