Our Corporate Responsibility Group have established six priority areas of focus for the coming year in terms of sustainability. One of these is accessibility, where we intend to develop a strategy, with our customers, to enhance the accessibility of stations and rail services, and to provide clear information to all users of our network.
We will be developing long term strategies for each of the six priority areas over the coming 12 months and will report fully on our progress in our next report:
- Carbon
- Climate change adaptation
- Waste
- Diversity
- Accessibility
- Biodiversity, ecology and land use
We want to create great travel environments by providing facilities that create a positive journey experience for a diverse and changing population. We continue to work with our partners to improve the journey experience of all passengers, especially those with reduced mobility, whether they are disabled, elderly, travelling with children in buggies, or travelling with luggage. We aim to attract even more people onto the railway through our work to improve accessibility.
We also want to make journeys to and from our stations simpler and greener, by providing easily accessible interchanges with other forms of transport, such as buses and bicycles.
Making the network more accessible
In 2010/11, we continued to implement the Access for All programme, funded by the Department for Transport. In 2010/11, we completed Access for All schemes at 10 stations (2009/10: 17), including the installation of new lifts, footbridges, handrails and tactile platform paving.
The Government’s Access for All aspiration is to improve accessibility at almost 150 stations by 2015. We have completed a total of 49 stations since 2006, with over 30 more planned for completion in 2011/12.
We have also continued to enhance passenger perceptions and journey experience through the National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP), funded by the Department for Transport. Work such as the installation of more accessible booking offices and passenger information systems was completed at 36 stations in 2010/11, including at Wakefield Kirkgate station in West Yorkshire, completed in May 2010, and Gipsy Hill in Greater London, completed in August 2010.
We also installed two modular easier access areas during 2010/11 - otherwise known as the ‘Harrington Hump’, named after the station in Cumbria where it made its debut. Although we looked for further third party funding for more ‘humps’ in 2010/11, none was available so work was limited to these two locations.
More bikes at stations
During 2010/11, we continued to open cycle parking spaces at stations across Britain, supported by a £1m investment in cycle facilities from the Department for Transport. This included double-decker cycle storage facilities for up to 534 bikes at Waterloo station, opened in June 2010, and the launch of Leeds Cyclepoint in August 2010 – with a two-storey building providing secure and supervised storage for around 300 cycles and a range of cycling-related services, including sales, servicing and repairs.
We continue to support the Mayor's ambition to make London a cycling city and we will continue working with Transport for London to explore options for installing docking stations at mainline stations to meet the increasing demand. In December 2010, London’s largest cycle hire docking station was opened at our station at Waterloo with space for 126 bicycles.