Access for all? Mobility-impaired passengers still cannot catch their train from some Exeter stations

There is no shortage of legislation, licensing requirements, contractual obligations, policies and support schemes incentivising those who run Britain’s railways to enable people with mobility impairments to travel freely across the network.

Great strides have been made in introducing rolling stock which is accessible to all. It is nearly twenty years since the Disability Discrimination Amendment Act 2005 removed a get-out clause explicitly enabling transport operators to avoid taking the necessary measures. Yet it is still impossible for many mobility-impaired people to use the railways as they wish.

Having accessible trains is one thing, but people need to get to the platform to board them. According to the Department for Transport only a fifth of Britain’s 2,575 railway stations have step-free access to and between all platforms, though this group of stations accounts for over three quarters of all rail journeys.

In Exeter, half the city’s ten railway stations have step free access to all platforms. However Exeter St Thomas and Polsloe Bridge allow platform access only by steep flights of steps, while St James Park presents a similar, if less acute, challenge.

The law, now consolidated into the Equality Act 2010, requires service providers to make “reasonable adjustments” to enable disabled people to access their services.

Section 20 of the Act specifies that where a physical feature such as a building’s design or construction prevents a disabled person from using the building, including exits and entrances, the owner must either alter the physical feature in question, remove it or provide a reasonable means of avoiding it.

However there is no legally-enforceable deadline by which all stations must be accessible. The government’s code of practice on design standards for accessible railway stations, which includes a requirement for step-free routes for mobility-impaired people, only applies to station operators whenever they install, renew or replace infrastructure or facilities.

The national railway system was bequeathed a complex ownership and regulatory structure following privatisation under the Railways Act 1993. This was amended on several occasions in subsequent years.

Today the key railway passenger services players are Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, and the train operating companies, represented collectively by the Rail Delivery Group.

In addition, the Department for Transport controls most aspects of railway operations and finance.

A new central government organisation, Great British Railways, is proposed to take over many of the department’s rail-related functions, pending legislation for which a draft bill was published on 20 February. A transition team has been established to lay the groundwork.

In Exeter all the railway stations, except Pinhoe, are managed by Great Western Railway (GWR), a train operator owned by First Group, one of the big beasts of the UK passenger transport industry. Pinhoe is managed by South Western Railway, which is jointly owned by First Group and Hong Kong’s MTR.

In line with legislative requirements and government guidance both GWR and South Western Railway take steps to assist passengers with disabilities. They are contractually obliged to have an Accessible Travel Policy, as are all the train operating companies, which includes operating a Passenger Assist scheme.

Where there is no or limited step-free access to station platforms operators are required to offer alternative ways of enabling passengers to travel. This may include providing accessible taxis or buses, known as Alternative Accessible Transport, at no additional charge.

Exeter St Thomas station access. Image: Jaggery under Creative Commons license.

Available evidence indicates that this service works reasonably well across the country. A 2022 Office of Rail and Road survey found that “for the majority of passengers using Alternative Accessible Transport, the vehicle arrives on time (81%) and vehicles are thought to be suitable by 91% of users.”

Closer to home, the chair of the Avocet Line Rail Users Group, which includes Polsloe Bridge and St James Park stations in its remit, told us that GWR arranges taxis as alternative transport from the two stations. Based on conversations with users, it seems that the service works most of the time.

What is less clear is how many people are put off from travelling in the first place because they do not want the added hassle of having to use alternative transport.

The 2021 Department for Transport Inclusive Transport Strategy evaluation baseline report found that disabled people with mobility impairments, or who used mobility aids, were less likely to have used public transport than other disabled people.

In particular, they were much less likely to have used trains. Only 34% of disabled people with a mobility impairment had used trains, compared with 55% of other disabled people.

Polsloe Bridge station access

Improving station access is not always straightforward. In evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee enquiry into accessible transport the Rail Delivery Group pointed out that history is often a major obstacle.

It said: “Many stations are listed as English heritage sites which often prevent train operating companies from making important accessibility improvements” while much rail infrastructure “regardless of whether it is listed or not, was built some time ago”.

Exeter St Thomas station is a listed Grade II structure while Polsloe Bridge, though not listed, is located on an open embankment some eight metres above a busy road, previously prompting the rail user group to suggest it should be rebuilt in a nearby location more suitable for ramp access.

However the biggest brake on improving access at stations is, unsurprisingly, funding. The Department for Transport has operated the Access for All funding programme since 2006 to improve station accessibility in England, Scotland and Wales.

According to its recent summary of consultation responses on rail reform, the programme has delivered step-free accessible routes at more than 230 stations, and smaller-scale access improvements at more than 1500 stations.

But none of the 73 stations announced for funded step-free access work between 2019 and 2024 was located in Devon, and a decision on a GWR funding bid for lifts and/or ramps at Exeter St Thomas, Teignmouth and Tiverton Parkway is still awaited nearly two years after it was submitted.

No bid has ever been submitted under the Access for All scheme for Polsloe Bridge, while a bid from a local group for St James Park station submitted during the 2014-2019 funding period failed to meet the funding criteria. And there will be no further funding under the scheme until the next round, which begins in 2030.

Applicants are expected to rank their bids in priority order. GWR told us that Exeter St Thomas was among its top twenty priority stations, ranked 15th. But its list is in competition with bids from across the rest of the country.

The Rail Minister told the House of Commons Transport Committee that the department was reviewing 300 bids and the maximum amount available for this funding round was £350 million.

There has been little public criticism of the Access for All programme criteria, though First Group’s evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee argued that “the criteria for applications are too restrictive, and more applicable to urban, rather than rural, settings”.

Meanwhile the hand-wringing continues. The three transport ministers who gave oral evidence to the transport committee said repeatedly that however much had been achieved to date the experience of too many disabled rail users was not good enough.

And the Great British Railways transition team is now working with the government and the Office of Rail and Road to support the development of a National Rail Accessibility Strategy which the Department for Transport claims will be “the first robust, joined-up, system-wide approach to accessibility”.

This may or not be a worthy successor to previous attempts such as the 2006 Railways for All - The Accessibility Strategy for Great Britain’s Railways and the 2017 National Implementation Plan for the Accessibility of the UK Rail System for Persons with Disabilities and Persons with Reduced Mobility.

Polsloe Bridge station. Image: Geof Sheppard under Creative Commons license.

During the House of Commons committee stage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in October 2022, the opposition put forward an amendment to strengthen the duty on government to ensure step-free access at all stations. It was voted down by the committee’s Conservative majority.

Under House of Commons Transport Committee questioning the Rail Minister was forced to acknowledge the gulf between the government’s ambition and the reality.

His initial pitch was: “The thing that I want to make absolutely clear is that any station operator or rail operator has to comply with the accessible transport policy, which is set out and reported on by the regulator. That is the key part. Cost doesn’t come into it.”

This prompted a committee member to respond: “With respect, the position you have given is the position of the Government that safety is paramount, and cost should not be a factor.

“Obviously, the Office of Rail and Road seems to be saying that cost does come into it when you look at these issues in terms of fines and enforcement notices.

“Given what you said in your previous answer, is that something that you will be addressing with the Office of Rail and Road, to ensure that it is not a consideration?”

The minister then had to admit that money did indeed come into it. He said: “The next batch for control period seven is £350 million, and it cannot be greater than that because we only have a certain amount of money”.

He was nevertheless clear that government budgets were not the only issue, issuing a side-swipe at Network Rail’s competence. He said: “The big challenge for me, and it is a challenge that I take to Network Rail who deliver the programme, is to make sure that they have the best people on it to ensure we can deliver to cost.

“I have made the point that it is always a terrible thing when money is wasted on railway projects, but when they are railway projects that deliver step-free access it is intolerable. It means that we cannot do the next project.”

GWR puts matters more bluntly in its Accessible Transport Policy. It says its “aim is to improve accessibility at all our stations and we will do so as funding is made available”.

It seems that unless there is a sea-change in funding access improvements in stations, rail accessibility strategies will make little difference to passengers who would like to use their local station but currently cannot.

Although the prospects for Polsloe Bridge and St James Park are bleak under any competitive funding system, the same should not be the case at Exeter St Thomas.

Its location close to the river and quayside and next to several bus routes and local facilities provides potential for easier access to the city centre for people travelling from the Dawlish direction than Exeter St David’s or Exeter Central while playing a key role as an active travel node.

Nearby high-density developments are already being approved partly on the basis of their proximity to this station.

The Exeter St Thomas funding bid decision, when it eventually comes, will be a good guide to the importance national government attaches to including people with limited mobility in the integrated local public transport system that is being proposed.