London Underground and the mechanisms are regularly degreased to lower the potential for fires. The only wooden escalator not to be replaced was at Greenford station, which remained until October 2015 when TfL replaced it with the first incline lift on the UK transport network. There are 426 escalators on the London Underground system and the longest, at , is at Angel. The shortest, at Stratford, gives a vertical rise of . There are 184 lifts, and numbers have increased in recent years because of investment making tube stations accessible. Over 28 stations will have lifts installed over the next 10 years,
Hainault tube station step-free access to the platforms. The lifts are the shallowest on the London Underground network, having a descent of just 0.67 metres. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is: Hainault is half a mile (800 m) from Fairlop Station, which can be seen from the platforms by looking down the line. Central line trains take just 65 seconds on average to travel between the two stations. However the minimum walking or driving distance between the two stations is considerably longer. London Bus routes 150, 247 and night route N8 serve the station. Hainault tube station Hainault is