Stockport Railway Station

Debate between Lisa Smart and Navendu Mishra

Friday 16th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

I am grateful to my constituency neighbour for giving way in this really important debate. I started my journey to the Chamber today at Stockport station. I completely agree with his comments, but I wonder whether he would go further. Our ambition for accessibility on our railway network needs to expand beyond the mainline stations. Stockport is an extremely important station for my Hazel Grove constituents, but we need to ensure accessibility at stations such as Woodley, Rose Hill Marple and Romiley so that all passengers can access our railway network, not just those who have two legs that can get them up a steep slope.

[Navendu Mishra]

I agree entirely. To go back to my previous point, if we want people to use public transport, we need to offer services that match their needs. I lived in Hazel Grove for several years, and I know the stations that the hon. Lady mentions. I agree that Stockport is a large station—it had almost 4 million entries and exits in the last reporting period—but we should not overlook the smaller stations. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, the north and north-west of England has been overlooked when it comes to transport investment. I agree with the hon. Lady, and there is a lot to be said about people commuting from smaller stations to larger stations and getting connections to Manchester airport, Birmingham, Cornwall, London or even Scotland.

Disabled passengers too often face faulty lifts and have no way to access the platforms, and that problem is persistent across my constituency. Sadly, three out of five rail stations in my constituency—Brinnington, Heaton Chapel and Reddish South—do not have step-free access, and I want to see that addressed as soon as possible. It is simply unacceptable that disabled passengers, parents with pushchairs, older people and people who are less mobile than us are excluded from using their local stations with dignity and ease.

I want to put on the record my thanks to Nathaniel Yates, a local champion from the Reddish part of Stockport —I think the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) has met him—who has done a lot of work on step-free access at railway stations, not just in Stockport but across Greater Manchester.