{"id":228592,"date":"2025-06-03T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=178169"},"modified":"2025-06-03T02:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:05:00","slug":"make-our-rail-stations-accessible-say-northern-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=228592","title":{"rendered":"Make our rail stations accessible, say Northern politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/people\/accessibility\/make-our-rail-stations-accessible-say-northern-politicians\/\" title=\"Make our rail stations accessible, say Northern politicians\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/02152214\/tfn-accessibility-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;\" link_thumbnail=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/02152214\/tfn-accessibility-485x360.jpg 485w, https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/02152214\/tfn-accessibility-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Transport for the North asked over 2,000 people across the region to share their experiences using rail stations \u2013 especially those living with health conditions or disabilities. What we heard was loud and clear: for too many people, our stations are not accessible enough. That\u2019s not good enough \u2013 and we\u2019re committed to fixing it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This report highlights where and how stations fall short, what\u2019s working well, and what changes passengers in the North, want to see.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>POLITICAL leaders in the North of England are calling for significant investment in the region\u2019s railway stations to make them accessible to all users.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Research from Transport for the North (TfN) highlights that most stations in the North are difficult or impossible for too many people to use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It found that:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fewer than half the stations in the North have step-free access\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>More than six-in-ten stations don\u2019t have fully accessible waiting shelters\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Nearly a quarter have no public address systems\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>TfN analysis shows that at the current rate of investment the North\u2019s rail stations would not all be step-free until the 22nd&nbsp;Century. This is holding back the economy \u2013 making it difficult for those that live and work in the North to access jobs, education and training, services and opportunities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Poor accessibility means many passengers are in need of support and assistance to travel with confidence \u2013 yet over half the North\u2019s stations are completely unstaffed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And inadequate lighting and CCTV mean that station environments often feel unsafe, especially to women and girls in particular.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>TfN has now written to the Transport Secretary seeking a commitment to the investment needed to fix this, and quickly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Political leaders in the North want the Government to share their commitment to make investment in accessibility and safety of railway stations a priority. And they say devolution of accessibility budgets to Northern Mayors and political leaders is essential to speed up delivery and ensure decisions, like accessibility, are made in the North, by the North, for the North.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and Chair of the TfN\u2019s Rail North Committee, has written to the Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander asking for an additional \u00a3400 million over five years. This would help address some of the accessibility issues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Burnham said: \u201cAccessibility is key. A rail network has to be for everybody. The simple ability to get around is a right that should be available to all our communities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have tactile paving in our urban spaces and step-free access in key public buildings, and we need that accessibility extended to our whole rail network. Without that we close off opportunities to lots of our people and businesses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are calling on the Government to address these accessibility challenges and create a more inclusive rail network for all rail passengers to use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it works for the Northern economy, it benefits the national economy too.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, said: \u201cEveryone should be able to travel with confidence, and it is so important that transport networks improve accessibility without delay to make this a reality across the board.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur own North East Metro system was the first in the UK to have step-free access throughout and tactile paving on every platform, as well as having a network of more than 500 digital CCTV cameras which is particularly reassuring for those travelling at night. The national rail system lags decades behind and we need to fix this so everyone can travel with ease and dignity.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need devolution of our stations and rail networks so that we can bring the standard up right across the UK, accessibility should be at the heart of every network alongside safety \u2013 particularly for vulnerable groups and women and girls.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>TfN\u2019s research includes a report, published today, that is based on the responses from over 2000 public transport users across the North.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It also found that many people were being priced off the rail network \u2013 with most people reporting difficulty with the cost of tickets.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>TfN is calling for accessibility to be a top consideration when planning new infrastructure for the North\u2019s railway, and specifying new train services.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.transportforthenorth.com\/documents\/s10647\/Appendix%201%20Statutory%20Advice%20Rail%20Station%20Accessibility.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Letter to Secretary of State for Transport<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transportforthenorth.com\/reports\/northern-transport-voices-passenger-experience-of-rail-station-accessibility-in-the-north\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rail Station Accessibility Report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Transport for North<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/people\/accessibility\/make-our-rail-stations-accessible-say-northern-politicians\/\" title=\"Make our rail stations accessible, say Northern politicians\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/02152214\/tfn-accessibility-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"><\/a>Transport for the North asked over 2,000 people across the region to share their experiences using rail stations \u2013 especially those living with health conditions or disabilities. What we heard was loud and clear: for too many people, our stations are not accessible enough. That\u2019s not good enough \u2013 and we\u2019re committed to fixing it.\u00a0 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,16013,8221,47,16092,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","category-general-interest","category-people","category-rail-news","category-stations","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228975,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228592\/revisions\/228975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}