A seat at the table! - Network Rail/GTR Meeting Summary

On 4th May our team met with representatives from National Rail, Great Northern Railways, Central Bedfordshire and Biggleswade Town Councillors and Alistair Burt MP. We will be chasing up the various groups on the commitments that were made during the meeting which are set out below. We now have a place at the table - and we won't be giving it up! We aim to present our petition in June and it would be brilliant if we could reach 11,000 signatures. If you haven't shared our petition yet we would be very grateful if you could help us give it one last push - thank you! Link below: https://www.change.org/p/step-free-access-for-rail-users-in-bedfordshire-now?recruiter=46231453&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition • Funding has been approved for an assessment into the improvements required prior to putting forward an official bid for funding (we were surprised this had not been done in previous years). • GNR have highlighted Biggleswade, Flitwick, Leagrave, Kentish Town, Harringay and Mill Hill stations as priorities. • The car park in front of Biggleswade station will be resurfaced in approx. 6-8 weeks and the crossing will be repainted at that time. • We insisted that disabled people are involved during any assessments and planning for access improvements "design with us not for us, plan with us not without us." GNR agreed to liaise with us going forward. • CBC confirmed there is currently no Disability Access Group to discuss access issues! This is something that disabled groups have been demanding for a number of years. (An assurance was given that this will be looked into and we will be pushing for this) • GNR do have a Disability Access Group but weren't aware if they had visited the stations in our area. They said they would check the make-up of the group which covers their franchise area to check for local representation. We will be asking for representation on this group if there is currently no local involvement. • We pointed out inaccuracies in the info provided by National Rail on their website in relation to station accessibility - particularly in relation to Sandy station. Sandy is described as 'accessible' when it clearly isn't. If Sandy is (incorrectly) described as accessible, then it may reduce the chances of funding being agreed for Biggleswade as one of the factors in the decision-making process is the distance to the nearest 'accessible' station. • We raised the issue of the steps at Biggleswade station (the lack of a riser in the steps) as being able to 'see through' the steps is very disconcerting for visually impaired people. • Sandy station - an accessible toilet will soon be opening on the N/B platform and a ticket machine on the S/B within this financial year. • Sandy station - we raised the issue of there being no disabled parking on the S/B side of the station. GNR said this was private land, but were looking into solutions in this area. • Arlesey station - new, additional, shelter to be installed on the N/B platform. We asked that a ticket machine be installed on the N/B platform and also raised the issue of the lack of a safe route for disabled people from the new car park to the station. Arlesey is another station described as 'accessible' on the NR website and we will be raising this also. • Bids for funding do get placed in a priority list. We asked that when this list is drawn up that it be made public to which NR agreed. • GNR are looking at station improvements at Biggleswade station with a view to a taxi office being located there. • CBC are looking at a Transport Interchange at Biggleswade (again) and plans should be completed by the end of this year. We asked that disabled people be consulted on this. • S106 funding (money from housing developers paid to the council) can be used to fund improvements to station access - and was the case with St Neots station which now has lifts • A public meeting will be arranged, most likely in September, to discuss progress. You can email us at: bedsrailaccessnetwork@gmail.com