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,
Southgate tube station platforms are labelled Westbound and Eastbound. However, the tunnels run more or less north-east to south-west at Southgate, so eastbound is north-eastbound and westbound is south-eastbound. In the early 1980s, moving picture advertising was tested in the tunnels south of the station. The pictures were of a child on a beach turning to face the camera. Southgate is the northernmost station in tunnels on the London Underground network. London Buses routes 121, 125, 298, 299, 382, W6, W9, 616, 628, 688 and 699 and night route N91 serve the station. Southgate tube station Southgate is a London Underground Piccadilly line