davidgillon | Couldn't make it up

Transport for London are relatively good at tweeting when the lifts at Tube Stations are out of action, making them inaccessible to those of us who need step-free access. Someone noticed that those tweets are oddly consistent with shift changes...

After being duly poked, TfL admitted it's mostly not the lifts going out of action, it's that if there's no one available to man the tube station due to staff shortages, they declare the lift out of action. Their logic is that if the lift breaks down people might get stuck and they can get them out quicker if someone's there.

So effectively their solution to someone potentially getting stuck in the lift is to make sure everyone is definitely stuck at the lift doors instead. *headdesk*

(There's a definite undertone of 1960s 'disableds aren't safe to operate the lift on their own' thinking here)