Lifts and a new entrance are on track to make Wandsworth Town station fully step-free by summer 2027, Wandsworth Council has confirmed.
Councillor Daniel Hamilton, the council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, visited the station last week with project managers from Network Rail and South Western Railway to see the £20m upgrade under way. Hamilton took on the transport brief after May’s cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Jenny Yates, who held the role when construction began in February.
Three new lifts will run from road and subway level up to all four platforms, and a new second entrance will open on Odyssey Way, on the north side of the station. Foundations for the lifts are being built until November 2026, with the lift shafts due to go in during February 2027. The new entrance opens alongside the lifts next summer.
The upgrade is aimed squarely at a problem residents already know about. Wandsworth Town’s single existing entrance is small and regularly draws complaints about overcrowding, a problem the council expects to worsen as more housing goes up around the station. The new entrance is designed to ease that pressure from the north side, where most of the recent development sits.
The council is paying £7.08m of the £20m cost, using money collected from developers rather than council tax. The rest comes from the government’s Access for All scheme, which funds step-free access at stations across the country.
When the council approved the funding in November 2025, Putney’s MP Fleur Anderson welcomed the move. “These works have been promised for far too long, but they will now go ahead thanks to the work of Wandsworth Council, Network Rail and local developers,” she said. “I know from constituents just how important step-free access is so this investment is a much-needed step forward.”
The upgrade was first promised in 2022 and took three years to reach a building site. Until October, some midday trains still skip the station while the lift foundations go in.
Network Rail is asking residents near the station to sign up for its notification tool, which alerts neighbours to planned and emergency works. Passengers are advised to check South Western Railway’s journey planner before travelling while the works continue.
Jump on the bandwagon MP Fleur Anderson claiming Labour did it but meanwhile your and Labours lack of effort still leaves your backyard of East Putney station still without a lift. Why doesn’t the article mention that failure.
You’re right, we shouldn’t let the failure to make progress on East Putney tube drop until the next TfL annual announcement / political photo-op. It needs persistent attention and focus.
We’ve written quite a lot about it in the past; here’s probably the most comprehensive story: https://putney.news/2025/06/24/exclusive-six-years-of-promises-zero-progress-tfls-step-free-shortlist-is-just-a-waiting-room-for-east-putney/
Is it just me or is £20m an absolutely colossal amount of money to pay for: three low-rise lifts & opening a lean-to entrance at the north end of the existing arch?
It would also be great to get passengers numbers. Wandsworth Town needs more trains in addition to better access. There is no space for passengers on the platforms or on the trains. Wandsworth Town is way busier than Putney for example. There are no fast trains that stop at Wandsworth Town but stop at Putney. Should really be the other way around. I’m familiar with both stations.