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Railways for All Strategy
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Derek Twigg): I have today launched the "Railways for All Strategy" which explains how the rail industry will improve access for disabled people. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
The strategy describes what the rail industry is doing to improve access for disabled people. It considers all parts of a journey including how the industry will improve the way it provides information, removing barriers to access stations and further refinements in the specification of trains.
A key objective of this strategy is to improve the accessibility of our stations and in support of this, the Government announced last year ring-fenced expenditure of over £370 million through to 2015. This investment is known as the "Access for All" funding and
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is over and above commitments made in franchises, the ongoing renewal of stations and major station improvement projects.
The "Access for All" funding is split into two parts:
Around £35 million per year is targeted at improving access to and within stations and to all platforms which would improve the accessible route and make the stations step-free. The strategy explains how we have prioritised this investment. These improvements will be targeted at the busiest non step-free stations and will be delivered by Network Rail.
Up to £7 million per year is available as small schemes funding and is targeted at less busy or rural stations where small improvements can go a long way to improving access. From today, bids are invited from train operating companies, local authorities and other parties, and will be assessed against stated appraisal criteria.
The stations which are planned to be delivered over the next three years by Network Rail can be downloaded today from www.dft.gov.uk/access. It is also intended that those stations which will receive small schemes funding will be listed here in due course.
As a rail industry, all parties need to work together to continue to deliver the access improvements many disabled people need. The "Railways for All Strategy" is all about delivering a railway for the 21st century that disabled people feel more comfortable, more secure and more confident in using.