The fight for accessible rail travel

What is the situation in Derbyshire?

Many stations are not equipped with the services or facilities that disabled people require to use them. In its research, the Law Centre has found:

Likewise, when journeys go wrong, disabled people can face a compounded impact due to poor communication between service providers and inadequate training. Sheila, a passenger with sight loss, shared her experience:

What is the Law Centre doing about it?

In 2023, with funding from the Baring Foundation, Derbyshire Law Centre launched the Disability Discrimination Hub. One element of the project is the Accessible Rail Travel for Everyone campaign. Its four key aims are to ensure that each station in Derbyshire has:

• Step-free access

• Tactile paving

• Accessible toilets

• A functioning passenger assist service

As part of a ‘hub-and-spoke model’, the Law Centre works to increase communication between 55 stakeholders, consisting of charities, support groups and services. The project has legal recourse at its disposal, but it aims to reduce the need for litigation by solving problems through collaboration and advocacy.

Impact

The Law Centre first became involved in rail accessibility work with the case of 11-year-old Owen Porter. Owen, who had cerebral palsy, needed to get the train to attend hospital appointments in Nottingham, but was unable to do so because his local station, Alfreton, lacked wheelchair access.

The Law Centre has successfully campaigned over a number of years for Alfreton Station to make improvements. Last week, the station held an official opening for the upgrades.

Derbyshire Law Centre has also expanded its work across the county. It is currently working with Derbyshire County Council, Dronfield Town councillors, Network Rail, the Railway Heritage Trust and Louise Jones MP regarding step-free access at Dronfield Station.

The Law Centre brings together stakeholders and service users to share research and lived experience. Earlier in July, the Law Centre hosted an Accessible Rail Travel event at Chesterfield Town Hall. Louise Jones MP and Toby Perkins MP then joined Law Centre staff for a sight-loss simulation and experienced the passenger assist service at Chesterfield Station.

The collaboration with MPs has helped to give the campaign a national profile. Louise Jones MP held a meeting in parliament with rail minister, Lord Hendy, regarding step-free access at Dronfield Station and other issues raised in the campaign. It is hoped that the work being done by Derbyshire Law Centre and its partners can benefit disabled people across the UK.

The bigger picture

The crux of the rail accessibility issue is about opportunity. The ability to travel by train can be the difference in being able to work certain jobs, in being able to attend social events. This is as essential for disabled people’s independence and wellbeing as it is for anyone.

In the context of the government's employment and welfare reforms it takes on a different urgency. Both of these policies aim to get more disabled people into work—if disabled people cannot get to work, their employment options are limited. Derbyshire Law Centre says: accessible rail travel must be seen as a key component of solving the disability employment gap.

Hub projects

Did you know that Derbyshire Law Centre's Discrimination Hub is not the only Law Centre hub project out there? The Law Centres Network supports hub projects in two other regions of the UK—at Suffolk Law Centre, and Vauxhall Law Centre in Liverpool.

These projects have increased each Law Centre's capacity to fight systemic injustice by pooling resources, sharing good practice and maximising legal expertise. There's much more that we would like to do, by replicating elsewhere and applying this approach to different issues.

If you like the work we're doing with the Law Centre Hub Project, please consider donating. We thank the Baring Foundation for its ongoing support with this work.

For media enquiries, please contact media@lawcentres.org.uk.