Transportation via tube with handicapped person

Hi, Kaye. The Transport for London site might give you some idea of what you'll be up against: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/transportaccessibility/1169.aspx It's also been my experience that accessibility is taken very seriously in London. Nearly every attraction will have a website and some information about how accessible it is. Good luck!

You might want to check out the bus portion of the above suggestion. Getting down to and up from the tube is very difficult. This is from a person who uses a scooter all the time in Europe. Even if a lift is advertised, it may not be working and if you get down and the up lift is not working, you are screwed, unless you wish to carry the scooter up the stairs. As said before, we use the bus or the wheels. We walk/ride to the sites. You could walk/ride there and then take a taxi back, if your funds would allow.

Kaye, I think John is correct. Using buses may be a more practical alternative. Many Tube stations are very large and complex, once you actually get underground. Traversing them can be frustrating. Very often, stairways are involved. While elevators may be available, there presence and their location is often not very apparent. I suspect, too, that they are simply not available. More importantly, there is a reason for the "Mind the Gap" announcement. Very often, there is a gap of several inches of horizontal and/or vertical space between the platform and the train. Your location seems fine to me It's smack in the the West End. But, for transport, I'd look first to buses and cabs. (lLondon black cabs are spacious and can easily deal with a scooter.) You'll need to do some research on the Tube, bearing in mind that it is about 150 years old.

The vast majority of the London Underground system is completely unaccessible for people who cannot use stairs or escalators. Very few stations have lifts and many of those that do still have steps between the lift lobbies and the platforms. Most buses now have wheelchair ramps but depending on how big your scooter is it might not fit in the standard wheelchair space (there can also be problems with inconsiderate car parkers making it impossible to get the bus close enough to the kerb to use the wheelchair ramp). Also the wheelchair spaces are sometimes taken up already by parents with the gigantic non-collapsible strollers that are fashionable now. Not all London black cabs are wheelchair-accessible, but many are. The ones that are have a standard wheelchair-user symbol inside the yellow light on top, although it can be hard to see on a moving cab.

This is a FYI. I arrived in London, at the St. Pancreas Station, on the Eurostar from Paris. I wanted to go to my hotel at Heathrow because I was flying from Heathrow back to the US the next day. It took 4.5 hours and 3 different tube lines and a private escort to get me to Heathrow. I was using an electric scooter. Won't do that again!!

Thank you all for your help....the information sure gives us a better an idea on how to get around. I sure appreciate your input. Kaye