Tottenham Court Road Tube stop reopens after upgrade

The interchange at one of central London's busiest Tube stations has reopened following upgrade work.

Passengers can now use the Northern Line platforms at Tottenham Court Road after eight months of disruption.

The work was part of a £500m upgrade to rebuild the Tube station and build a direct interchange with Crossrail services, due to begin in 2018.

Work was undertaken to build new access routes, new staircases and a lift - all designed to increase capacity.

Bigger ticket hall

Thanking passengers for their patience during the works, David Waboso, Capital Programmes Director, said: "There is still further work to be done behind the scenes at the station and passengers will notice that the platforms only have a temporary render finish on the walls.

"Our priority has been to reopen the platforms as soon as the heavy civil engineering works were completed and they could be used safely by customers."

As part of the project the ticket hall is being made almost six times bigger, there will be four new or modernised entrances and step-free access to the platforms.

A public plaza is being created outside Centre Point with wider pavements, better cycling facilities and improvements to bus services.

About 147,000 passengers currently use the station each day and this is expected to rise to more than 200,000 once Crossrail is completed.

The station is due to be fully upgraded by 2016.

Crossrail will provide services from Maidenhead in Berkshire - through central London - to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.