15.06.16
Stations to be cut from Access for All CP5 works to be revealed in summer
Decisions about which stations will be affected by the deferred Access for All scheme, designed to improve accessibility across all stations by installing lifts and ramps, will be made later this summer, rail minister Claire Perry MP has said.
In a response to a parliamentary question from Tom Brake MP, Perry said the government will be responding to the Hendy Report later this year, but is meanwhile working with Network Rail to identify how Access for All projects will be delivered and when.
In his report last year, Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy recommended that Network Rail re-planned its investment programme to defer Access for All works from CP5 to CP6.
Over one hundred responses were submitted to the DfT’s consultation on the Hendy recommendations, “a number of which” referenced this important accessibility programme.
“In addition to the consultation my department has received letters from a wide range of stakeholders discussing a variety of Access for All subjects, a number of whom ministers and officials have also met,” Perry said.
“My department is committed to publishing a report summarising these responses and decisions made in light of them later this year.”
The decisions around which stations will not be included in the Access for All programme in CP5, if any, will be set out in updated versions of the Enhancement Delivery Plans currently available on Network Rail’s website.
To date, the programme has already delivered 142 schemes, with the CP5 programme being an extension of the CP4 fund, according to Hendy. It is also aligned with other station investment projects, such as renewals and the national improvement programme.
But the CP5 fund value for the scheme was revised down from £135m (including £32m rollover) to just over £87m, with the remainder of the original money now planned for CP6 instead. In light of this, planned schemes are having to be reviewed by the Access for All Programme Board, which consists of Network Rail, DfT, the Office for Rail and Road and Transport Scotland.
(Top image c. TfL)
Have you got a story to tell? Would you like to become an RTM columnist? If so, click here.