10.09.13
Accessibility improvements at Manchester Oxford Road
£1.8m funding will be used to improve access for passengers at Manchester Oxford Road station.
The investment will reopen a disused subway at the station and install new lifts, forming step-free access between the lifts and platforms. Staircases and platform edges will have tactile warning surfaces and lowered handrails on footbridges are being installed.
The subway will be fitted with new lighting alongside new CCTV and a passenger help point. A new emergency exit staircase will also be created at the front of the station, forming a new fire escape.
The improvements are funded through the Access for All programme, Network Rail’s nationwide initiative to improve accessibility for passengers, especially “those with reduced mobility or with small children or heavy luggage” according to route managing director, Dyan Crowther.
The station will remain open during the work and Murphy Group will be the main contractor for design and construction. The plans will be set in motion later this month with aims of completion in early 2014.
Cllr Andrew Fender, chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, commented enthusiastically upon the plans, and said: “We are working closely with our rail industry partners to try and make all Greater Manchester rail stations as accessible as possible and this is a huge step in the right direction for Oxford Road.”
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