Transport for London (TfL) has "no immediate plans" to improve accessibility at Norwood Junction despite the long-standing concerns of disabled passengers at Croydon's second-busiest rail hub.

Croydon Council is considering dipping into its own budget to fund a study into potential improvement works at the station, which has no wheelchair ramp and step-free access to only one platform.

Since 2010 Norwood Junction has been managed by London Overground, a concession of TfL, and is the only station on the network's East London line extension with no disabled access.

But at a council scrutiny meeting, TfL's borough engagement manager Steve Heeley said the organisation had "no immediate plans to make any improvement".

RELATED: Crystal Palace supporters group working to improve disabled access at Selhurst Park

Despite TfL planning to upgrade a further eight Overground stations by 2025/26, Mr Heeley said there was no funding available for Norwood Junction under the Department for Transport's (DfT) Access for All scheme.

An estimated six million passenger journeys a year begin at the station, according to the council - second only in the borough to East Croydon.

Scrutiny committee chair Sean Fitzsimons said the council should consider taking a "more proactive approach" to improving disabled access by funding its own feasibility study into possible improvements at the station.

Cllr Fitzsimons said: "It's a major interchange for Croydon residents. If you're a person with a disability who wants to use Norwood Junction [for London Overground services], your choices are West Croydon, which is not even fully accessible, or Anerley. And they are quite big distances.

"We [the committee] will be recommending to the council that we can't rely on the DfT funding and we will ask the council to explore all those options."

Although feasibility studies in the past had not supported the possibility of improving accessibility at Norwood Junction, Cllr Fitzsimons said, the station's vital place in the borough's transport network meant inaction was no longer an option.

He added: "I think getting on the Overground opens up a whole way of getting into London that wasn't there in the past.

"It may be impossible in its current configuration to make that station 100 per cent accessible...[but] we wouldn't mind an 80 per cent improvement."

Yusuf Osman, the chairman of the Croydon Mobility Forum, said it was "positive that somebody has said they want to do a feasibility study and the council are saying they might find the money to have that done."

But he warned: "If they are going to make it accessible they are going to have to spend a lot of money doing it and it's going to have to come from all the people involved."

Councillor Stuart King, the recently-appointed Labour cabinet member for transport, said the cost of any feasibility study would depend on whether the council needed to employ external experts.

Got a story? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6388 or email daniel.omahony@newsquest.co.uk