Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides

"Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone"

- The Windmills of Your Mind
Michel Legrand / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman

Masklin watched it hypnotically. Stairs rose out of the floor, squeaking eerily as they did so, and whirred up into the distant heights.
[...]
"Jump down!" he shouted. "You can't trust ground that moves by itself!"

- Truckers
Terry Pratchett

Lifts and Escalators

[Last modified: 2023-11-03]

Introduction

This page gives detailed information on the lifts and escalators to be found on the Underground. It does not cover DLR or Tramlink equipment because I do not have the relevant information. Lifts and escalators generally connect lines to each other or to the surface. Therefore they cannot, in general, be allocated to individual lines.

History

The early Underground lines were all on or just below the surface, and stairs were sufficient for passengers. However, the first tubes were far too deep to expect passengers to walk up and down, and so lifts were installed, many stations surviving in their original form to the present day (though none of the equipment is original). The commonest arrangement was to place two lifts in a 7m (23') diameter shaft and have either one or two lift shafts, though in some places a 9.1m (30') shaft was used that could accomodate three lifts and Bank had individual shafts for each lift. Usually there was another shaft containing a spiral staircase for emergencies or those who didn't want to wait for a lift.

Lifts had two disadvantages: they bunched the free flow of passengers into separate carloads and, until automation became practical, each one required an attendant (though, by the 1920s, the lift attendants at quieter stations might also sell or check tickets). Both of these problems were addressed by the invention of the escalator in 1892. The technology was not mature enough for use during the early days of tube line construction but, once it was, the underground railways took to it with joy. Unlike lifts, escalators allowed a free flow of passengers, could be left unattended, and acted as their own emergency staircases rather than requiring separate ones to be provided.

The first escalator-like device on the Underground was the experimental "Reno double spiral continuous moving track" briefly installed in a shaft at Holloway Road intended for, but never used for, additional lifts. Information about this is difficult to find - although once reported as almost ready for use, it was either never actually used or else only used on the opening day (1906-12-15) - but some of the parts have come to light and can be seen at the London Transport Museum "Depot" at Acton. It had a rise of 10.7m (35') and ran at about 0.5m/s (100' per minute). The two spirals both ran clockwise and were nested, the upwards one inside the downwards one; the overall diameter was about 7m (23'), the standard lift shaft size. Unlike modern escalators where the treads return to their starting point along the bottom of the machine, a single set of treads were used for both directions; at top and bottom the connecting track ran under the flooring, meaning that passengers could not stay on for a round trip. (It is not clear whether there was either a shunt or comb arrangement - see below - at these points.) The journey would take 43 seconds upwards, 47 downwards. Incidentally, a similar spiral, 30m (100') tall, had been installed at the Earl's Court Exposition from 1902 to 1906, and another contemporary design (never used on the Underground) placed the two spirals side by side with tangent horizontal sections linking them.

The first true escalators (a pair of Otis type A machines) were installed at Earl's Court on 1911-10-04 in the shaft that now holds escalators 1 and 2. They were of the "shunt" type where a diagonal barrier forced users off to the side at the end of their ride (the top of "down" escalators also had such a barrier so that they could be reversed if necessary). A total of 22 type A machines were installed, with one at Liverpool Street surviving until 1953 (Liverpool Street was also the first station to rely on escalators rather than lifts to provide the main access to the platforms). However, no doubt to the relief of users, the shunt style gave way to the modern "comb" arrangement. The first comb was installed at Clapham Common on 1924-12-01 as part of a batch of 65 Otis type LHD (nearly all of these have been modernized and are still in service) and all subsequent machines have had combs, though existing shunts remained in place for many years, possibly as late as 1953.

Originally escalators were called "Moving Stairways"; it is not known when the current name came into use.

There was some initial public fear of, and thus resistance to, escalators. At the opening, the clerk of works for the installation - a one-legged man known as "Bumper" Harris - demonstrated to the press how easy it was to ride the escalators. (A story has grown up that Harris rode up and down all day for this purpose and that some people remained skeptical, thinking they knew how he had lost his other leg. However, there is no evidence of this and his family have recently stated that it is untrue. Harris was subsequently to make considerable wealth and retire to Gloucester to make cider and violins.) As it turned out, the newspapers reported that, far from being scared, some passengers were breaking their journey at Earl's Court just to ride the escalator.

Because of their convenience, from 1912 until 1987 almost all new stations used escalators rather than lifts, and for the same reason many stations have been converted - Angel is the most recent example. Because escalators are angled while lifts are vertical, such conversion requires significant tunnelling, both for the shaft and for new connecting passages because one or both endpoints have moved. In the case of Angel, advantage was taken of this to replace the surface station with a new one about 100m nearer the commercial centre of the area. Similarly, the conversions of Green Park and Hyde Park Corner moved the entrances enough that Down Street (sited between them) could reasonably be closed. While there were some stations where the layout meant an escalator shaft had to be driven through an erstwhile lift shaft, equally there are many where the latter remained untouched after conversion. Some such shafts have been fitted with emergency staircases, but one much less common use is found at St.Paul's, where the former lift shaft first held the wartime headquarters of the Central Electricity Board and more recently became the logistics hub and storage depot for track renewals on the Central Line. In another wartime event, the lifts at Baker Street - taken out of use in 1911 - were brought back into use for VE Day (1945-05-08) to help the station cope with the extra demand.

Traffic on escalators down to platforms tends to form a fairly steady stream, but that on escalators up to exits tends to come in batches as each train arrives and so, in an attempt to save energy and reduce wear, some were run at half speed until a photocell detected passengers and triggered an increase to full speed. This technique (later used on a few short downward escalators as well) was first used in 1934 and, after a trial of a better version in 1956 at Baker Street, it was eventually extended to a total of 46 escalators. The technique was abandoned in 1974 as being uneconomic, but reappeared in 2021 (for both directions of use) on the escalators at the new Northern Line stations of Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms and at the Elizabeth Line station of Canary Wharf (3).

During World War II "down" escalators were stopped in quiet periods. Additionally, two escalators were removed (one from St. Paul's and the other from Holborn; the former was never replaced) for use at an underground factory at Corsham. An escalator intended for Highgate^[10] was instead used to replace one at Bank destroyed in bombing on 1941-01-11.

Photo [562kb] and info

When the DLR was opened in 1987, most stations were close enough to ground level not to need escalators. However, lifts were included at every station to make the system wheelchair-accessible. Since then all new stations on the Underground network (not just the DLR) have been fitted with both lifts for step-free access and escalators for mass use. Many existing stations are also being retrofitted with lifts for the same reason.

King's Cross

On 1987-11-18 a fire started, probably from a dropped cigarette, underneath number 4 escalator at King's Cross St. Pancras. No effective measures were taken while there was time to do so; the fire spread to the wooden side panels of the escalator, and then a flashover incinerated the entire escalator shaft and the ticket hall above. A total of 31 people were killed. Although the escalator was fitted with water-fog apparatus that could have doused the fire or, if used regularly, washed away the fluff and grease that ignited, lack of effective management meant that it was not used.

As a result, smoking was completely banned on the system and at underground stations on other railways, and a large amount of money and effort has since been put into fire safety.

The LHD-M crisis

On 1999-08-12 there was an incident on escalator 4 at Oxford Circus where it allegedly stopped and then slipped backwards. Following this a programme of inspections of LHD-M escalators was set up, and on 1999-09-24 cracked drive shafts were found on two machines. All LHD-Ms were therefore taken out of service from about 15:00 that day. This caused various station closures during that month:

Since then most work on the LHD-Ms was done without closing stations, though South Wimbledon did have to be closed for several weeks. A second set of problems, this time with MY-As, led to further closures during early 2000.

The 2002/3 Firefighters' strike

In late 2002 the Fire Brigades Union declared a series of strikes. LU decided that, while the lack of fire service cover was not a problem in general, there would be a significant risk if a lift failed with passengers in and then there was a fire. Therefore they decided that no lifts would operate during strike periods and those deep tube platforms that could only be practically reached by lifts would be closed, with trains not stopping.

The effects of these rules were:

• The following 21 stations were closed completely:

  Belsize Park Borough Caledonian Road Chalk Farm Covent Garden Edgware Road (2) Elephant & Castle

  Essex Road Goodge Street Hampstead Holland Park Holloway Road Kennington Lambeth North

  Lancaster Gate Mornington Crescent Queensway Regent's Park Russell Square Tufnell Park Wapping

• Shadwell(1) was closed in the peak hours (07:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00) on Mondays to Fridays, but open at all other times.
• Piccadilly Line trains did not stop at Gloucester Road.
• Bakerloo Line trains terminated at Waterloo, with no service from there to Elephant & Castle.
• Northern Line trains that would normally terminate at Kennington either terminated at Waterloo or continued to Stockwell.

The actual strikes took place as follows:

General information

At each station, the lifts and escalators are numbered (in two separate series of numbers). The numbers are almost always displayed at the ends of the escalators, but lift numbers are only sometimes displayed.

The two major suppliers of this equipment are Otis, originally a US company, and Kone, a Finnish manufacturer.

Lifts

Lifts are electrically powered unless stated otherwise. The earliest lifts moved at about 0.6m/s (120' per minute), but these were gradually replaced by ones with higher speeds, 2.5m/s (500' per minute) being common and 4.1m/s (800' per minute) not being unknown.

Otis provided the lifts for the original Yerkes tubes and thus became the major supplier to the UndergrounD group. Though originally separate companies, Wadsworth and Oakland Excelsior (also known as Oakland Elevators) are now part of the Otis group. Other suppliers have appeared in recent years to meet the need for "MIP" ("Mobility Impaired Person") lifts to provide step-free access to platforms.

Some sources omit "New" from the "New Otis" names.

On this page, the term "shaft" is used to indicate a vertical shaft designed to hold one, two, or even three lifts. Where there is more than one lift in the same shaft, there is usually a (normally locked) doorway in each lift that allows people to be transferred between them.

Newer stations may have one or more "emergency" lifts. These are not normally accessible to passengers and are provided for firefighters' access to the platforms and for the evacuation of wheelchair-bound passengers. They are specifically designed to be safe to use in the event of a fire. Some lifts are dual-purpose: both public and firefighter/evacuation.

While traditionally lifts just went from ticket hall to platform (or near so), modern installations will sometimes have intermediate stops, either public or for staff only.

The Kone MonoSpace 700 lifts installed for the Elizabeth Line come in three basic types: the "PRM" designed for normal public use including wheelchair users and other "persons with reduced mobility", the "FF", which is a firefighter/evacuation variant of the "PRM", and the "INC" used as inclined lifts. Both have a capacity of 17 people or 1275 kg. The suffix "/M" indicates a larger lift with a capacity of 26 people or 2000 kg. Other capacities are indicated in the description.

Inclined lifts are normally only installed in places where it is impractical to have a vertical shaft, usually because one can't be fitted in between the other tunnels or foundations in the area. The inclined lifts move at the same speed as the adjacent escalators, though the need to wait for the doors and for the lift to undock and dock mean the total travel time is about 20 seconds more.

Two eastern tunnel portals and five intermediate shafts have each been fitted with a lift to provide staff and emergency access. They are described as an "I/E" variant of the Kone MonoSpace 700; the capacity is 26 people or 2000 kg unless stated otherwise. These are included at the end of the main table.

There is no consistent rule for numbering of lifts, other than that lifts in the same shaft normally have consecutive numbers.

Escalators

All escalators currently in use are electrically powered.

There are two angles of escalator shaft. The standard arrangement is for both shaft and machine to be at an angle of 30° (9m vertical climb per 18m of length). However, those shafts that originally contained type A machines, plus two other parallel shafts at Liverpool Street and Oxford Circus, are at an angle of 26°23' (8m vertical climb per 18m of length) with otherwise standard escalators modified to climb at that angle^[13]. All escalators at this angle are explicitly mentioned in the table below. Normal running speed for escalators is for the steps to move at 0.737m/s (145' per minute); since the vertical speed is half this for a 30° slope, it can be seen that escalators take much longer than lifts to climb the same distance.

Escalators in the same bank, or in parallel banks, are numbered from left to right when looking upwards (many of the escalators at Canary Wharf (3) are exceptions to this rule). For many years there was a policy of numbering the escalators at a station - or at least those installed at the same time - from the lowest bottom end upwards, but over time many exceptions have appeared, though some new installations still obey the old policy. The escalators installed at Paddington as part of constructing the Elizabeth Line are numbered in a separate (and conflicting) series to those already there. To discriminate them, this page uses EX1 etc. instead of E1 etc., whether or not there is a conflict.

Otis was the major supplier of escalators for many years. The original type A disappeared in 1953, but the popular 1920 type L, which standardized the 30° angle, survives as the LHD-M (the suffix indicating that the machine had gone through a modernization rebuild). The most successful escalator design was the Otis type M. The oldest of these date back to 1932 (those at Manor House and Wood Green are still in service). There are two varieties: MY for rises up to 15m (50') and MH for up to 27m (90'). Upgrades of these (indicated by suffixes) are still used in new installations, though some MY types have been replaced by the HD family.

Two other major suppliers were Orenstein & Koppel ("O&K") and APV Baker. Both escalator businesses are now part of Kone. O&K were a major German manufacturing company who supplied escalators for the Jubilee Line extension to Stratford. APV Baker was formed by the merger of Baker Perkins (who made industrial food processing equipment), APV (an aluminium processing company who moved into diary and liquid food equipment), and Pantin (a brewery equipment manufacturer). Despite the apparent lack of connection to escalators, the company had a special projects division that undertook a range of engineering tasks from re-siting factories to designing missile launch systems, with escalators being just one of them. The escalator business was sold to O&K/Kone in 1995 and the company is now called Baker Perkins once again.

Finally, the French company CNIM have supplied a number of replacement escalators, mostly on the Central line, and the Swiss company Schindler^[16] have more recently supplied over 20 escalators, mostly for extensions to Tottenham Court Road and Victoria stations.

One escalator (Embankment number 7) is fitted with glass sides so that the workings can be viewed by the public (from the eastbound District Line platform).

On this page, a "bank" of escalators is two or more escalators built into a single physical structure. Phrases such as "same shaft" are used when the bank of escalators is fitted tightly into a diagonally sloping tunnel (i.e. a tunnelled shaft), while phrases such as "same bank" are used when the escalators are in otherwise open space. The construct "shaft/bank" is used where the situation is unknown.

In many cases a bank of escalators will have an escalator-width staircase in it; staircases of this width are described here as "standard staircases". Some such staircases are numbered in sequence with the escalators. This may seem a curious practice, but it is used where the staircases are arranged in such a way that they can be reasonably easily converted to escalators, as was done with King's Cross St. Pancras 2 and Brixton 2, where new escalators were installed in 2002 after staircases had been there for many years. Staircases and gaps are unnumbered unless a number is specifically given.

Moving walkways ("Travolators")

Two stations have moving walkways installed (the term "Travolator" is a trade name of Otis). These are similar to escalators but do not have a vertical drop between the "steps".

Two Otis Travolators - in engineering terms they were essentially elongated Otis MY escalators - were installed at Bank on 1960-09-27 to connect the Waterloo & City Line platforms to the Central Line ticket hall. Number 2 was taken out of use on 2000-07-16 and replaced by a CNIM machine, which came into use on 2001-06-25. Number 1 was taken out of use on 2001-06-21 and similarly replaced, coming into use on 2002-06-17.

Two O&K moving walkways ("passenger conveyors") were installed at Waterloo on 1999-09-24 to connect the Jubilee Line platforms to the Northern and Bakerloo Line ones.

Detailed information

The following table lists every known lift, escalator, or other form of powered passenger transport within stations, giving the numbers, the lift stopping points or escalator end-points (from top to bottom), and the vertical rise (the length of an escalator depends upon the angle and the length of the landings, but it usually about twice the rise).

The prefixes to numbers are:

At some stations lifts are given letters that are displayed on public signage. These are shown in parentheses after the number.

Terms like "east" generally refer to actual, albeit approximate, compass directions. However, on platforms they refer to the nominal direction of the line. For example, at Canning Town (1) the platforms are approximately north-south; the "east" end of the Jubilee Line is the north end, while the "east" end of the DLR is the south end.

The places within the station described are intended to indicate the approximate, not exact, location of the place in question. The mention of one platform at a station does not mean that others are not served as well, just that this one is the nearest or at the same level. Except where shown by a + suffix, escalators end and lifts stop level with the platform or other described feature.

A "surface ticket hall" is at street level, though may have up to 5 steps (up or down) at the exit, while an "elevated ticket hall" or "underground ticket hall" is clearly above or below ground level with stairs, escalators, and/or lifts to street level.

A "link passage" is a passage linking two sets of escalators or lifts and (usually) nothing else

The term "adjacent" always implies that the lift shafts or escalator banks are parallel and connecting the same stopping points.

Measurements in italics are deduced from the station layout and might not be accurate.

Notes

^[1] Angel escalators 4-6 are allegedly the longest escalators in Western Europe; the Kyiv Metro has an escalator with a 66m (217') rise. One set of escalators at Bond Street is about a metre shorter than the Angel ones.

^[2] There is no visible indication as to which lift has which number; this page assumes that the lift with the lower serial number has the lower LU reference number as well.

^[3] King's Cross St.Pancras lift 4 is actually labelled "MIP 1", but 4 is the only unused number.

^[4] Sources state that Vauxhall escalator number 3 is 0.03m (about 1") less than this height, which is for escalator number 1 (number 2 is a fixed stair). This difference is not immediately visible on-site.

^[5] There is no visible indication as to which lift has which number. It is assumed that the lift to the lower numbered platform has the lower LU reference number as well; this also means that lift 1 is on the platform for the same track at all stations along this section.

^[6] Previously reported as Pickering hydraulic.

^[7] Previously reported as Bennie MIP hydraulic.

^[8] Charing Cross escalators 4 to 9 lead to the disused Jubilee Line platforms and are behind locked doors. The parts of the escalators that were visible when they were in service have been left unchanged for the benefit of film crews, but the machines are inoperative since much of the hidden mechanism has been cannibalized for repair of other escalators.

^[9] Each of the pairs of escalators 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 at Embankment link a platform to the main circulating area, but they are much wider apart than would be implied by terms like "adjacent shaft". One escalator is dedicated to upwards movement and one to downwards. For each pair, the one on the left when looking up has the lower number (the usual convention).

^[10] A two-escalator shaft was built at Highgate but escalator 4 was never installed and that half of the shaft has now been blocked up.

^[11] North Greenwich escalator 10 is in the same bank as 1 to 3; the order is 10, 1, 2, 3 from left to right looking upwards. Number 10 was installed on the site of a fixed staircase. Number 1 originally ran from the bottom only to an intermediate landing but was later extended (it was converted from an O&K LUL1 at the same time).

^[12] Beside Canary Wharf (2) escalators 15 and 19 there are covered-over gaps and supports left for a future escalator. There are no gaps in the numbering to allow for these.

^[13] Some sources claim that, in some cases where a new escalator is installed in a type A shaft, the lower landing is moved slightly to allow an angle of 27°18' (11m vertical climb per 24m of length). It has not been possible to definitely confirm or refute this. This claim has been made for Otis MY-A escalators at Baker Street and Otis HD-B escalators at various locations.

^[14] Finsbury Park originally had four Chester hydraulic lifts in two shafts serving the GN&CR platforms (these are now the southbound tube platforms) with a vertical ascent of 8.53m (28'0"). When it arrived just under three years later, the Piccadilly Line platforms (now the northbound tube platforms) were served by four C&A Musker hydraulic lifts, also in two shafts, sharing the same pumping station, with a vertical ascent of 6.00m (19'8"). The slow speed of these lifts meant it was often quicker to walk.

The northern pair of Piccadilly Line lifts (numbered 1 & 2) were taken out of use in 1909-10 and the shaft used for a spiral staircase. The northern pair of GN&CR lifts were similarly replaced in 1920, with the spiral staircase coming into use on 1921-04-24. The remaining lifts were decommissioned in 1921 (the pumping station was already out of use on 1922-01-07) but still in place in 1959. Present lifts 1 and 3 are in these shafts.

The top end of the spiral stairs are on an upper intermediate level while the current lifts serve a separate lower intermediate level. It is unknown which of these is the top end of the original lifts.

^[15] The escalator at Alperton was taken out of service in 1988-09 and was bricked up in or just before 1990-11.

^[16] The Swiss lift and escalator company Schindler is not connected with Oskar Schindler, the subject of the book "Schindler's Ark" and the film "Schindler's List".

^[17] The Bank moving walkways 1-2 are a total of 97.04m (318'4") long horizontally, 3.34m (10'11") at the lower landing, 89.62m (294'0") for the sloping section, and 4.08m (13'5") at the upper landing. The vertical climb is 12.8m (42'0") and the length of the sloping section 90.536m (297'0"), meaning they slope at an angle of 8°8'.

^[18] The Waterloo moving walkways are 115.940m (380'5") long with the main truss being 12cm (5") shorter. Number 1 is on the north side (on the left when travelling towards the Jubilee Line).

^[19] Farringdon lifts 3-4 originally operated between the Thameslink ticket hall and southbound Thameslink line, a vertical distance of exactly 5.26m (17'3"). The third stop, for the Elizabeth Line, was added as part of constructing the line.

^[20] The Elizabeth Line platforms at Liverpool Street are located between the main line station and Moorgate station. Liverpool Street escalators 19-24 and lifts 1, 2, 3, and 5 connect the west end of the platforms to Moorgate station and so are listed under Moorgate on this page.

^[21] There are escalators and lifts from outside the gatelines at each end of Canary Wharf (3) ticket hall to the shopping centre above. These are not TfL assets and are not listed in detail here. The escalators from the west end of the ticket hall to the Crossrail Place entrance are numbered 56 and 67; those from there to the Adam's Plaza bridge are numbered 63 and 64.

Each escalator bank to the platforms has a pillar between two of the escalators, with two on the westbound platform side and one on the eastbound platform side.

^[22] The upper link passage between lifts 1 and 2 at Moorgate is parallel to the path of escalator 24, separated by a railing and transparent screen, and the two lifts align with the top and bottom of the escalator. The same arrangment applies with Tottenham Court Road lifts 7 and 8 and escalator 20.

^[23] The lifts at Knightsbridge are being installed in the original, and disused since 1934, lift shafts.

^[24] Stratford escalators 1 and 2 are the shortest on the UndergrounD.

^[25] Travolator 3 at Bank is on the right when facing the Northern Line end. The exact length of these two is not currently available, but it is about 100 metres.

^[26] These lifts carry an "Accord" nameplate; Accord appear to be installers rather than manufacturers. They are now part of Schindler.

^[27] These lifts carry a "Platform Lift Company" nameplate despite being officially listed as an Otis model. These two companies appear to be independent of each other.

^[28] The escalators at Abbey Wood have no visible numbers, only serial numbers E500214 and E500215.

^[29] King's Cross Thameslink station closed on 2007-12-08 but the subway to King's Cross St. Pancras remained open until 2020-03-20 (though only on weekdays and with restricted hours), providing an additional entrance and exit for the latter station. Escalator KC1 at the Thameslink station remained in use for exiting passengers for at least part of this time (it's not known exactly when the escalator last operated).

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