GTR welcomes funding announcement for step-free access at stations

GTR welcomes funding announcement for step-free access at stations

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has welcomed the announcement that seven stations will receive funding to make them step-free and accessible to all its passengers. A further four stations where earlier bids for funding were initially deferred have now been given the green light.

The Department for Transport has announced funding under its Access For All scheme for Network Rail to upgrade the following stations by 2024:

Southern

• Crowborough
• Leatherhead
• Battersea Park (previously deferred but now going ahead)

(Work is already under way on step-free schemes at Crawley, Coulsdon South, Selhurst and Carshalton.)

Great Northern and Thameslink

• Biggleswade
• Hertford North
• Catford
• Cricklewood
• Mill Hill Broadway
• Luton (previously deferred but now going ahead)
• Peckham Rye (previously deferred but now going ahead)
• Streatham (previously deferred but now going ahead)

(Work is already under way on step-free schemes at Finsbury, Alexandra Palace and Palmers Green)

GTR put forward a number of stations for step-free funding in the most recent bidding round, working with local communities to support its bids.

GTR’s Head of Programme Delivery Andrew Sidgwick said: “We are delighted these stations have been selected for funding. We work very hard to make our services accessible to everyone and the projects will make an enormous difference to our passengers. We will immediately begin supporting Network Rail as it develops each scheme.

“We also recognise that other stations were not successful in this bidding round, which is disappointing for the communities we worked so hard with to put forward our proposals. We won’t let up and plan to examine how we can develop some of these other schemes further, possibly using the Mid-Tier Access for All fund to be announced shortly.”

Ends

Notes to editors

The Department for Transport has announced a Mid-Tier fund in its press release today:

“In addition to these significant upgrades, we intend to use £20 million of the funding to re-launch the Mid-Tier Access for All programme. This will be focused on stations where accessibility improvements can be delivered with between £250,000 and £1 million of government support.” GTR will consider this along with other sources of funding for some of the stations that have not been successful.