ACCESSING BRITAIN’S
Railways BY KATIE CAMPBELL
In the next ten years, our railway stations should become considerably more accessible for everyone - but how accessible are they for passengers currently?
W
ith the origin of Britain’s railways dating back almost 200 years, it will come as no surprise that many of the 2,566 train stations - that’s not including the stations of the London Underground, Glasgow Subway, Docklands Light Railway, or Tyne and Wear Metro - located all across the country are, at times, not the most accessible. With the government committed to ensuring every station in Britain has stepfree access by 2030, we take a look at how accessible our railway network is, and what it needs to do to allow everyone to get onboard.
WALES
The five most used train stations in Wales are Cardiff Central, Newport, Cardiff Queen Street, Swansea, and Bridgend. Much like in Scotland, the accessibility of these stations are exceptionally good: Cardiff Central, Newport, and Cardiff Queen Street, lack a Changing Places facility, while Swansea and Bridgend provide all of the accessibility provisions listed by Network Rail. In figures published by the House of Commons library, Wales excelled in its offering of train ramp access at stations (94%) and step free access (79%). Some areas of Wales, including South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan, internally provide excellent accessibility options, with 100% of ticket machines being accessible and 89% of stations in the area offering step free access, respectively. However, the area of Gwynedd - home to Snowdonia - ranked one of the least accessible in Britain in the areas of accessible ticket machines (6%), accessible ticket offices (6%), and mobility set down (6%).
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