A newly qualified doctor fears she will be late for her first day at work because one of the lifts at Earlsfield station has been in and out of service for the last four weeks.

Hannah Barham-Brown, 28, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, meaning her joints can dislocate easily and some days, relies on her wheelchair to get around. 

The doctor, from Godley Road in Earlsfield, will have to travel to Kingston Hospital when she begins work next Monday but says she cannot be sure she will be able to make it on time for her shifts.

She said the problems with the station lift first started about four weeks ago and since then, some days it has worked, and some days it has not.

Dr Barham-Brown said: "Part of the issue is that it is broken, they fix it, then it breaks again and you never know when you turn up whether it will be working or not.

"They have asked me to give them 24 hours notice to travel to the station but as a doctor I have no idea when I will be leaving work or even going to work.

"It took me two hours to travel from Norbiton to Earlsfield and part of this was in a cab too."

Dr Barham-Brown said if she arrives at Earlsfield to find she cannot get in the lift, she is often sent on to Wimbledon or Clapham Junction, but has sometimes arrived at those stations to find lifts are broken there too. 

In the worst situations, she has arrived at Earlsfield station alone late at night to find herself stranded on the station platform. 

She said: "If I'm stranded they will ask me to go to Wimbledon and get a cab but when you're disabled you are quite vulnerable so it is scary."

The junior doctor has faced problems with the station through her training as she travelled back and forth to central London and to visit family in Newcastle. 

She said: "I start work at Kingston Hospital next week and I am genuinely not sure I will be able to make it some days.

"As a wheelchair user I have a freedom pass but that does not kick in until 9.30am so I am paying for journeys that I cannot complete."

Dr Barham-Brown said she often sends South West Trains messages on Twitter to report the problem, and sometimes receives an apology, or is ignored. 


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She said: "I feel sorry for the Twitter guys, they have so much abuse to deal with and they do not know what is going on.

"It is not the station staff's fault, but none of the comments seem to get anywhere."

On some occasions, she has been told by staff that the lift is overheating, causing it to break. 

A spokesman for South West Trains said: "One of the two lifts at Earlsfield station is currently experiencing intermittent problems and we are working with Network Rail to get the issues rectified as soon as possible.  

"The lift on platform three is working as normal, but any passengers with accessibility problems needing to use the lift on platform one and two are being advised either to travel through to Clapham Junction, which is just three minutes away and the quickest alternative, or alternatively we can arrange a taxi.

"We are sorry for the problems this is causing to our customers at Earlsfield station."

Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting, said: "Earlsfield Station secured millions of pounds in improvements with Sadiq Khan as our local MP - I want to continue his great work.

"However, South West Trains is failing commuters, its service is below par. After so much money being invested into the transformation of Earlsfield Station, common problems like faulty lifts should be a thing of the past.

"I'll be requesting to meet with South West Trains in the coming days, commuters in Earlsfield deserve better."

Have you been stranded by broken lifts in south west London stations? Email the newsdesk on Rebecca.Taylor@newsquest.co.uk