Great Western Coffee Shop

Consultation Question 13

a) Which stations do you think should be a priority for improving accessibility?
b) Why?
c) What other improvements could help to make rail services easier to access and use for all passengers?

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Explanatory text

Passengers with disabilities can face significant challenges when travelling by rail, and at various stages of their journey. We are determined to continue making progress in breaking down these barriers to disabled people’s confidence in using rail transport.

We propose to seek commitments in the franchise for high-quality disability awareness training for public facing staff, recognising that there is a wide range of disabilities, not all of which are visible, and in being aware of the differing needs of individuals with different forms of disability. We will seek commitments for high-quality consultation specifically with disabled passengers, more systematic monitoring and reporting of the quality of service provided to passengers with disabilities and plans to act on the results of such reports. We will expect the franchisee to develop proposals for improving accessibility to and within stations.

See http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19037 for the background to this topic

Just a couple of our threads on on individual questions have elicited zero follow ups or comments on the forum and accessibility is one of them.  And where we held a secret ballot asking people what they wanted to cover at our Didcot meeting, the subject failed to attract too.   I can't say I'm surprised - in ratings and rankings where accessibility is included in a list that the public can choose from, it never makes the "top 10".  However, for a minority it is of make-or-break critical importance,  and there are times that they punch way beyond their numerical weight at meetings and events to the extent of taking those events over.

On TransWilts (as the question asks about specific stations), I look forward to the installation of a lift on the northern end of the new footbridge at Chippenham to give wheelchair access to all of the town, not just a part of it.  I welcome the provision of an accessible loo on all of our trains.  I am very happy that all trains carry staff and a ramp to ensure that anyone with reduced mobility (and that includes pushchairs with toddlers) can access trains without pre-booking.   And I look forward to the rebuilding of the platform at Melksham station in such a way that both the horizontal and vertical distance between train and platform are significantly reduced.

Less positive (on the TransWilts) ... Trowbridge is currently an interchange for journeys from Melksham to Bristol, and from Bradford-on-Avon to Swindon, with a modern footbridge that does not cater for those who cannot use a footbridge.  In a wheelchair, it's a long way from one platform to the other; not a unique situation (Bradford-on-Avon has a similar hike around the town  :D ) but not clever when changing trains.   Informal advise to wheelchair users hoping to change at Trowbridge is to change at Westbury instead - I can't see anyone objecting to a double-back and it would be a very foolish TOC indeed who proceeded against anyone with limited mobility so doing.  For a long term solution at Trowbridge, an innovative solution may be coming out of current capacity works and some of that master planning.

At Westbury - and there are other stations too - platforming decisions are based on operational needs, and they have to be.   However, there are also choices that are made within operational needs and they tend to be made for operational convenience, often (one suspects) without the passenger in mind.  And in particular, it would make sense to ensure that choice as made lead to convenient, cross-platform or same platform connections on major flows.  I can foresee a track alongside "platform 0" at Westbury - or perhaps a platform cantilevered out to the existing track - with trains that are south and west bound generally using platforms 0 and 1, and trains that are north and set bound using platforms 2 and 3.

Both Trowbridge and Westbury stations are Heart of Wessex 'lead's in community rail terms - however, I suspect I'm not speaking out of tune with them on these comments, which I offer as part of passing on suggestions from TransWilts passengers.

In my home town, we have a large number of people who have never used the train and who are put off from doing so by not knowing how.  But the train could make a positive difference to them - ranging from the very occasional short trip to a nearby destination for pleasure through to something life changing.   

Work was done about 4 or 5 years ago in two Wiltshire  towns with personal travel planners (I know one of them well) to assist people in finding better ways to make their journeys and a low proportion but significant number made changes as a result.

The quietest 50% of stations account for just 2% of ticketed entries / exits in the most recent statistics - as most of those will be journeys to or from the busier stations, that means that around 4% of journeys involve one of these stations at one end or the other.   And with a few exceptions they're unstaffed.

It does not make hard-nosed financial sense to pay someone to staff a station at the lower end of the usage scale, but should there be an ability for someone to be accessible at a station to help and answer questions, perhaps while doing other work ...   it sounds to me like I am coming along the community rail / "Friends of Patchway" approach - indeed I am, but there is scope for enhancement.

It strikes me that information and ticketing are key offputters for new users, and that these days many people who are very bright / literate work from home several days a week - saving them significant travel time. "Hot design" is in vogue at places, with big employers offering staff who are on the road the ability to drop in to a number of locations from where they can work.    Where am I headed?

... Provision of an office / hot desk facility at a station, available to knowledgeable / somewhat trained community  members on the understanding / requirement of working a certain number of (co-ordinated?) hours there at no charge to them, with a specification that they will look after transport customers first.

... Funding of the office / hot desk facility (and associated facilities to allow passenger help to be provided) by the provision as one of the elements of the facility being a local ticketing agency, offering the operator of the facility (naturally the CRP, one wonders?) a commission rate on tickets sold that acknowledges the low volume and high effort involved in reaching the small station market, and acknowledges that the train will be running and the railway there anyway - so that the extra passengers are going to actually cost the TOC very little extra to carry!

... Volunteer / hot space manning incentives.  "Benefits in kind" strike me as most likely to be tuned to the volunteers likely to offer themselves - i.e. travel concessions  - and would be economic and controlled to provide.

Although I talk "hot desk" there is considerable scope for the active retired to take part in the provision, and including those retired but with reducing activity too.  We know of problems finding volunteer community bus drivers in for that span of years between them giving up their careers for a somewhat more relaxed time and the point at which they are no longer able to drive a PSV.  There are far more years in station volunteers ...