Ups and downs of a lift

Eric Baxter Eric Baxter - 1629 • Published 7 May 2008 16:30

ONE of life"s certainties is that lifts are made to break down.

Which is why it"s crazy to install one at Inverkip rail station, a proposal being considered today by councillors.

This is an unmanned station, so there"s no-one there to help. And the lift at a planned bridge is to be monitored from, believe it or not, Paisley!

It"s only a matter of time until someone - possibly a young mum with a screaming wean in a pram - gets stuck in the thing and has to wait for ages for staff at the Network Rail customer services centre to get an engineer.

The lift at WH Smith"s new Greenock post office broke down recently after only a couple of weeks.

Fortunately no one was in it when the doors jammed, because it took all of two hours to get it repaired.

Outrageously, a disabled lady had to endure the embarrassment of being carted down the shop"s stairs in a special evacuation chair.

Getting stuck in a lift inside a store must be bad enough; it"s easy to imagine how much worse it would be if it happened at a railway station in the hours of darkness.

Also, the lift will be a magnet for vandals, so that"s why it will operate only when the trains are on.

But who"s going to stop neds closeting themselves in there to enjoy a wee refreshment?

Yes folks, it"s your actual disaster waiting to happen!

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 07 May 08

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