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news
Greenwich foot tunnel (CC licensed image by frodefjeld:Flickr)Greenwich foot tunnel bike commuters face months of carrying bikes up stairs
Cyclists commuting from south London to the cluster of skyscrapers around Canary Wharf are having to lug their bikes up and down 96 steps, with the lift at the southern end of the foot tunnel linking Greenwich with the Isle of Dogs out of commission until at least March.
Unlike when we first reported on the tunnel back in 2009 when it was closed for several months for essential works to be carried out on it, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has since 2014 allowed non-folding bikes on trains outside peak times.
That’s scant consolation though for those who do have to travel during rush hour, given the lack of alternative Thames crossings in the east of the capital – with a long-planned bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf looking that it has now been permanently shelved.
One cyclist, Matt Harrison, speaking to MyLondon before Christmas, said: “It's a nightmare. It's been months and I come up and down these stairs twice a day.
“It’s not just about cyclists, it’s about accessibility for everybody. If people can't walk up the river, how else are they going to get up the stairs?
“Luckily I'm fit and I can do it but it's everybody else that can't do that. That's the biggest problem.”
Another, Rob O'Shea said: “It’s terrible, but it keeps you fit! The lift has been broken for months. I have to do it every day when I go into work.
“Evenings, I don't like it. Mornings, I'm full of energy so I don't care.
“You know it's really scandalous. But the biggest problem is, not intentional vandalism, but misuse. That's probably what breaks it. People are blocking the doors and holding them open for other people and that's what causes the doors to get damaged.
“I go to Canary Wharf so there's not really any other way around apart from London Bridge. So it’s just a real nuisance.”
And another bike commuter expressed frustration that while cycling infrastructure is being built in the area – during the past year or so, Transport for London has been constructing Cycleway 4 from Tower Bridge to the Woolwich Road roundabout, at the junction with the Blackwall Tunnel approach road on Greenwich Peninsula – option to cross the Thames are lacking.
“It's hard work and annoying,” Mark Aldous said. “The most frustrating thing is you can see thousands spent on empty cycle lanes throughout the borough and throughout London, and this is the only cycle crossing all the way till Tower Bridge so it's very frustrating.
“I don't remember a single day this year that both lifts worked. But I travel up here every day so at least it keeps me fit,” he added.
While it may not have particularly helped cyclists commuting towards Canary Wharf from Greenwich or places such as Charlton to the east, a bridge for people on bikes or on foot had been planned from Rotherhithe to the north west corner of the Isle of Dogs, close to the financial district.
But the project was shelved by TfL on financial grounds in mid-2019, and with the black hole that has materialised in its finances since then due to plummeting fare revenue as a result of the coronavirus crisis, in all likelihood the project is now dead in the water, as it were.
In a statement published in October, Greenwich Council said: “It is with disappointment that the Royal Borough of Greenwich is letting Greenwich Foot Tunnel users know that lift repairs will be delayed due to international supply chain disruption.
“While the design work and preparation for the lift repairs is making good progress, disruption and material shortages are impacting availability of the bespoke parts required for the repairs.]
“The revised date for the reopening of lifts at both the north and south sides of the tunnel is early March 2022 – around four weeks longer than anticipated.
“The council is working closely with suppliers to minimize the delays, caused by shortages in stainless steel and electronic components, which are beyond our control.
“At this point we are unable to predict if any more delays will be experienced. We will continue to update tunnel users as the repair work progresses,” the council added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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43 comments
I may seem pedantic but after years of being forced onto the stairs by repairs, full lifts or social distancing restrictions, I can affirm that it's a lot more than 96 steps - 87 on the north side and 100 on the south.
Surely this is discrimination according to the Equalities Act? No disabled person could use this, and there is no alternative, so who is going to be first to complain?
I wondered that but I'd guess it isn't as they have acknowledged the problem and are taking steps to rectify it (IANAL, obvs) - a bit like the way you can only sue for pothole damage if you can show that the council were aware and did nothing?
I find it difficult to believe that the parts cannot be repaired....does no one have the skills to fix stuff these days? How complicated can a lift be?
Bespoke parts for an old out of date model. Very safety critical too...
I also find it hard to believe that the smarts and the parts to fix it arent available in this country should the council look hard enough.
The 'smarts' may be available but the parts not. I don't know where the parts originate from but if from the EU there is a problem i.e. the barriers erected by the UK government to free trade with their closest market. Pretty dumb thing to do - the world's first ever trade agreement that actually put up barriers to free trade.
Looks like your bumper supply of crowbars got through just fine.
Yes we certainly don't want people taking over a cycling website to go on for pages and pages and pages about the pros and cons of Brexit, do we Rich? Imagine how boring that would be!
Road.cc is deliberately political so such discussions are par for the course here.
If you don't like politics go to an apolitical cycling website. There are many available.
They certainly are for you, can't honestly remember you ever actually commenting straightforwardly on a cycling matter without politicizing it. Your hypocrisy is, as ever, breathtaking - on the one hand you're saying it's par for the course on this website for discussions to turn political, on the other you accuse Lukas of crowbarring in a perfectly valid point about the possible origins of supply chain problems.
I'm going to implement my New Year resolution early this year. It's a far too belated one, I realise, but from now on I'm not going to respond to anything this sad little man says, however hard he trolls. Apart from the fact that he's just so boring and predictable, I've realised that by responding to him and giving him the acknowledgement he so desperately craves we may be guilty of giving him verification and so retarding the process of helping him on the road to seeking the help he so desperately needs to overcome the psychological trauma of not being chosen as a prefect at school or whatever it is that's made him quite such an inadequate, attention seeking individual.
I don't presume to tell others how to behave but would welcome anyone who would like to join me in this. The site has been such a much nicer place to be since he's been away, the second he's back he starts dragging the whole thing down again. I don't suppose he'll quit immediately but the less attention we pay him (again, I realise that I've realised it far too belatedly) the sooner he'll go off and find somewhere else to troll.
Road.cc has run many articles on Brexit.
Lengthy debates under such articles are to be expected, much as they are when road.cc runs articles on helmets, disc brakes etc etc.
A bit of gentle ribbing when someone makes a desperate attempt to link an unrelated topic to Brexit is, I think, entirely reasonable.
Perhaps you could try that kinder, gentler, approach in future instead of the aggressive tone you usually adopt. Could be the first step to addressing that problematic personality type of yours?
Of course, if Lukas (or you) has any proof whatsoever to back up their lift related hypothesis then I'd be happy to hear it and discuss it, at length.
Thrilling as it would be to hear you reiterate your pontifications about Brexit that you have inflicted upon this cycling website so many, many, many times in the past, looking at my diary for the foreseeable future I find it's absolutely chockablock with appointments to go and listen to paint dry, so I will regretfully decline your kind invitation.
Maybe instead of watching paint dry you could find some examples of me politicising a cycling discussion when it wasn't directly related to the article or a previous comment?
We wouldn't want people to think you went around making inflammatory accusations with absolutely no basis in fact would we?
That would just make you a troll.
You're surely not a troll are you Rendel?
As a final aside; here are some examples of recent non political cycling posts. That's one less baseless claim you can make in future.
https://road.cc/content/news/cambridges-chisholm-trail-opens-campaigning...
https://road.cc/content/forum/foot-hotspots-288309
Do divest yourself of the idea that I could give a tuppenny damn about what you and the rest of your tiny coterie of self-righteous rightists on here think of me dear boy, or what you call me - I don't.
So you couldn't find a single example?
You seemed so sure of yourself earlier as well.
You've made a bit of a fool of yourself there Rendel, better luck next time old man.
You appear not to be able to understand what I mean by saying I couldn't give "a tuppenny damn about what you and the rest of your tiny coterie of self-righteous rightists on here think of me" - I most certainly don't care enough to go trawling through your tedious comments at your behest, they were dull enough first time round.
For someone that doesn't care for my 'tedious comments' you seem to spend a lot of time seeking them out and replying to them.
As per usual you have made a claim and you can't back it up.
Back under your bridge Rendel old boy.
Come out when you've got something constructive to add.
Makes insults.
Loses.
Simple as that.
Dear Lord. You're not very comfortable with the back and forth of a discussion to exchange ideas and views, are you? Why the (totally unnecessary) ad homs?
Unfortunately the 'threaded' feature on here is not the best.
What are you referring to?
Knock me down with a feather, Rendel - I agree with you!
Happy New Year, and good cycling.
Says who? You?
It's not misuse of the lifts - holding doors open does not (or certainly should not!) damage lifts. It was a botched refurbishment job. People who aren't strong enough to lift a bike, or who have additional luggage, parents with prams, wheelchair users... they're all barred from using the tunnel. It's frankly pathetic.
Not to mention our handcyclist sisters and brothers. If the council had any initiative they ought to have commandeered the Hilton-Canary Wharf ferry (currently a scandalous £4.20 for a 60 second crossing) and made it free a la Woolwich ferry at least for those with access problems until they can actually provide access to the foot tunnel for all.
its not misuse as such as they should have installed lift doors that could cope, but it probably does cause damage holding those doors open as they refurbished the lift with glass doors, and I think those are always very susceptible to being knocked out of alignment and breaking the motor mechanism that moves them, as they arent as robust or as integrated as a metal door would be.
Surely (my knowledge of engineering could fit in a matchbox without taking the matches out first) there would be a basic pressure sensor operating a motor cutoff to sort that? For safety reasons surely the doors would have been designed for the door motor to cut at any resistance, not keep on pushing until the motor broke?
I certainly dont claim to be a lift engineer
but Ive encountered enough of these types of glass doors, to know they are almost always quite flawed in their operation. Because they get chosen for their aesthetics, not their solidity in function.
And a standard pressure or infra red detector ruins the aesthetics of the glass door, because you end up with bits sticking out and cables to hide somewhere. So Id bet its avoid hitting you tech relies on stuff similar to electric car windows, and its down to the motor sensing if it feels any resistance first,which stops it and rewinds it, which is important, because if the motor then feels any resistance it cant tell the difference between misalignment in the doors or a person in the way
Throw in the doors probably run quite slowly compared to a normal lift as well, as glass doors always seem to be much slower for some reason,probably because the concern is they are more liable to crack if they impact things too hard, so whilst peoples reaction might be to help others catch the lift,they also dont want to be held up more than necessary so they push the door to assist it moving back quicker, which just wrecks the motor over time, and causes misalignment in the doors, and you are back to it unable to tell if its people in the way or its off track.
its a poor choice of door type for the location imo, it needs something more robust to cope with how people use these things in real life, and not just look nice on a visualisation drawing.
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