Broken lift was like a yo-yo, wheelchair user says

A man who was using a lift at a Tube station said he had to call the fire brigade after it began to bounce "like a yo-yo".

Nathan Rollinson, who uses a wheelchair, was at London Bridge station on 16 February when he pressed the emergency button and the member of staff said they would have to call a lift engineer which "can take up to two hours".

Rollinson said he called the fire brigade who responded within about 10 minutes with a rescue unit.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said while it aims to get passengers trapped in a lift out as quickly as possible, "sometimes specialist engineers or the London Fire Brigade are required to assist them and restore the lift service".

The wheelchair user said the London Fire Brigade (LFB) were "really good" and were able to manually re-position the lift and got the doors open to free him.

Rollinson, who has an assistance dog, said he was "just frustrated and angry - it should not take that long".

Rollinson, who lives in Herne Hill, said this was not the first time he had been stuck in a lift or been unable to leave a train due to staff not being in place with ramps at railway station platforms.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We always look to ensure that customers are supported and are regularly updated during incidents like this, and are investing millions of pounds in both maintaining our lifts, as well as working hard to install more lifts to improve accessibility across our network."

The spokesperson said TfL was "sorry to hear of Mr Rollinson's experience while travelling on our network".

Rollinson said he has made a complaint to TfL about his experience at London Bridge station.

He said: "Only a third of the network is accessible and I know what the backlash will be - 'why does he not take alternative transport?'

"But when I do, I can't. The bus ramps break, black cabs are expensive and lifts break down."

There are approximately 255 lifts on London's Tube network in more than 90 stations which provide step-free access from street to train.

TfL said station lifts sometimes went out of service due to instances such as customers holding doors open, or objects caught between doors.

The transport operator also said when step-free access was unavailable, staff would help customers to plan an alternative step-free journey to their destination.

If there was not a reasonable alternative route, TfL said it would book the customer an accessible taxi which it would pay for.

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