Kentish Town tube station has reopened, but hold the celebrations… 

I DIDN’T join celebrations for the long-awaited reopening of Kentish Town tube station, although I understand why some felt like celebrating after so long.

I won’t ever use Kentish Town tube or, without assistance, any other rail station (that includes Underground, Overground, Thameslink and Elizabeth, plus main lines) in the London Borough of Camden except King’s Cross-St Pancras and Tottenham Court Road.

It’s difficult explaining to friends abroad that, as a wheelchair user, resident in one of the richest boroughs of what we’re repeatedly told is the world’s fifth or sixth richest country, in prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s parliamentary constituency, it’s only possible to make one rail journey of one stop in one direction in a wheelchair (almost) without assistance.

Camden has 17 Underground and nine Overground stations.

According to Transport for London, nine are wheelchair accessible.

To me, that means step-free, street to train, so I can enter a station, reach the platform and roll onto the train from the platform without assistance, then do the same in reverse at my destination.

To TfL “wheelchair accessible” includes step-free, street to platform.

There, if lifts work, I can get to the platform without assistance, then get station staff, if any, to carry a ramp to the train, place it so I can board, remove it and, fingers crossed, notify the station where I’ve told them I want to get off to have a ramp waiting for me to reverse the procedure.

No ramp, no embarking or disembarking.

Once boarded I can’t change my mind and get off at a different station.

What if two people going in different directions need ramps around the same time?

That happened to me in Brussels earlier this year.

With all ramps in use elsewhere, Belgian railways sent me and another wheelchair-bound friend, 25 miles by taxi at no cost.

Would that happen in London?

TfL has a neat mobile phone app. Pressing the wheelchair icon removes all non-wheelchair accessible stations, those without lift or level access to platforms, from its map. It shows eight accessible in Camden.

In my wheelchair just two are accessible without assistance.

All, except King’s Cross-St Pancras and Tottenham Court Road require manual ramps. Without assistance I can’t travel from King’s Cross by rail to – and exit – any other Camden station (except Euston Square using a mini-ramp).

From Tottenham Court Road I can’t travel by rail to and leave any other station in Camden.

In September I spent one day in Barcelona.

Wheelchair rail travel was a dream. Barcelona’s combined under and overground network, almost as large as London’s, has only five stations and interchanges not 100 per cent wheelchair accessible, including its 100-year-old lines.

I can get to a friend’s in Brussels, (one London bus, Eurostar (with ramp) and Brussels metro), more easily and quickly than from Gospel Oak to London Excel.

In the time it’s taken to replace two escalators and pour some concrete in Kentish Town, China has opened nearly 1,000 kilometres of metros in around 15 cities and completed around 20 metro lines – all 100 per cent accessible.

Chennai (India), Malaga (Spain), Sofia (Bulgaria), Thessaloniki (Greece), Copenhagen (Denmark), Santiago (Chile) are among hundreds of cities worldwide with underground metro systems allowing wheelchair travel without assistance. In Japan, addressing wheelchair users’ needs in locations unsuitable for lifts, Mitsubishi installs wheelchair-carrying escalators.

Why not in Kentish Town?

As we enter 2025, unassisted rail travel reality for wheelchair users in Camden is zero journeys.

If not joining Kentish Town’s reopening festivities, could I celebrate that I can go from King’s Cross to Euston Square? No, since I can’t make the journey back from Euston Square to King’s Cross.

With no accessibility upgrades planned for Holborn and St Pancras, is Starmer proud in 2025 of all he has achieved as Member of Parliament for wheelchair-dependent constituents since replacing Frank Dobson in 2015?

Scrutinising his achievements as MP and statements of intent for the disadvantaged, as prime minister, I expect him to maintain his record during his Downing Street, incumbency, ensuring I won’t be travelling unassisted in my wheelchair by rail in Camden in 2030.

• Bernard Miller is a writer.