Railways Stations: Accessibility

The Minister of State for Transport, my noble Friend Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, has made the following ministerial statement.

This Government are committed to improving the accessibility of Britain’s railways and recognise the significant social and economic benefits of doing so. As we move towards the establishment of Great British Railways, we will provide greater detail of how these ambitions will be funded and delivered.

Since 2006, the Access for All programme has delivered step-free accessible routes at over 270 stations.

In May 2024, the previous Government announced feasibility work on 50 stations without indicating how the delivery of such schemes would be funded, raising significant stakeholder expectations. This Government are committed to a rigorous approach and to only making commitments that we believe are affordable and would represent value for money for passengers and taxpayers. As such, Ministers have carefully considered the findings of the initial feasibility work and have decided which will progress, using the following criteria:

Busy stations, where upgrades would benefit significant numbers of passengers;

Ensuring a good spread of projects across Wales, Scotland and different parts of England;

Making use of pre-existing technical development work; and

The presence of a third-party funding contribution.

On this basis, Ministers have made the following decisions in relation to the 50 projects announced by the previous Government:

Eight projects are progressing directly to delivery: Ash Vale, Colchester, Port Sunlight, Thirsk, Walton (Merseyside), Bellgrove, Aigburth and Rock Ferry stations—with the last two already in delivery.

Twenty-three projects are progressing to detailed design:

Battle

Kew Bridge

Bodmin Parkway Bredbury

Kidbrooke

Castle Cary

Marden

Dalston Kingsland

Newton for Hyde

Dorchester South Esher

Raynes Park

Falkirk Grahamston

Ruabon

Flowery Field

Shotton

Gunnersbury

Swanwick

Hedge End

Ulverston

High Brooms

Wymondham

Yeovil Junction

Nineteen projects will not be progressing at this point:

The Rail Minister has written to the MPs representing each of the 50 stations announced by the previous Government. He has offered to meet to explain the decision for those 19 projects that will not be progressing at this point.

A future round of AfA may be funded as part of the next spending review, and this could provide an opportunity to fully or partially fund accessibility upgrades at other stations across Britain. The process and timings for identifying potential future AfA projects have not yet been decided, although we have committed to reforming the AfA programme as we move towards the establishment of Great British Railways.

Third-party funding contributions will be a key consideration in choosing future AfA schemes. This approach recognises the limited funding that the Government can make available to fund accessibility upgrades, as well as the significant benefits they bring to local communities. To support this, officials will be working with Network Rail to develop guidance setting out best practice examples of how local funding packages have been assembled.

We inherited a significant backlog of AfA projects initiated under the previous Government. Although we remain committed to the delivery of the vast majority of these legacy AfA projects, Ministers have taken difficult but necessary decisions in relation to the following five legacy projects:

Beaconsfield—delivery deferred to railway funding control period 8 (2029-2034) to more efficiently align with planned station drainage renewal works.

Brondesbury—delivery deferred to 2028-29 to more efficiently align with planned station platform renewal works.

Cricklewood—indefinitely deferred as the benefits such upgrades would deliver to users of the station would not justify the significant disruption caused to other users of the Midland main line and the significant costs to passengers and taxpayers.

Ockenden—indefinitely deferred as the station is already highly accessible, with only certain peak time trains stopping at the inaccessible platform.

Palmers Green—indefinitely deferred as the benefits such upgrades would deliver to users of the station would not justify the significant disruption caused to other users of the West Anglia line and the significant costs to passengers and taxpayers.

The Rail Minister has written to the MPs representing each of the above five legacy projects and has offered to meet to explain the decisions made.

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