Northwich Railway Station: Accessibility

Debate between Simon Lightwood and Chris Bloore

Wednesday 19th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Simon Lightwood)]

It is a privilege to respond to this important debate on accessibility at Northwich station. It is an issue that clearly has a massive impact on the Northwich community and the local travelling public, regardless of their mobility, age or the fact they are travelling with heavy luggage.

Many of Britain’s 2,581 railway stations were constructed before modern accessibility standards were established, making them challenging to navigate for many disabled people. My Department’s recent accessibility audit found that approximately 56% of stations are step-free. It might also be helpful for me to explain that around 66% of the 1.3 billion journeys that take place on the network every year are between those step-free stations. This is significant progress, compared to where the network was just a few years ago, but we still have a long way to go.

I assure my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Cheshire (Andrew Cooper) and other hon. Members that accessibility is an absolute priority for this Government and, once it is fully established and operational, it will be of critical importance for Great British Railways. We are absolutely committed to delivering accessibility improvements, allowing more people to travel easily, with confidence and with dignity. We also know that the experience for disabled people when travelling on rail too often falls short of what is expected and, frankly, what passengers deserve.

That leads me on to our recently published rail accessibility road map, which ensures that we remain on track to deliver improvements, both to facilities and to the little things that create a better passenger experience. The road map includes a range of tangible actions that will improve the experience of disabled passengers on existing lines, including the assistance they receive, access to journey information and improvements to how we maintain lifts, escalators and facilities such as toilets.

Meaningful improvements are being delivered across the railway to improve the accessibility of the network. Through the Access for All programme, we have already delivered step-free access at over 270 stations right across Britain. This has included new lifts and bridges, ramps, tactile paving, improved signage and wayfinding changes that make a real difference to the everyday lives of passengers. Thirty-two station accessibility upgrades have been completed since the beginning of April 2024, with accessibility upgrades at a further five stations planned for completion by the end of March 2026.

Smaller-scale accessibility upgrades have also been completed at more than 1,500 locations, including everything from accessible ticket machines to better lighting, handrails and help points. This is real progress. We are making strides to transform journeys for passengers who previously struggled to use the railway or were unable to use it at all, and we are continuing to invest in station accessibility. As part of the 2025 spending review, the Chancellor confirmed £280 million for Access for All projects over a four-year period.

Now that I have addressed some of the steps that the Government are taking to ensure that we provide adequate accessibility at stations, I will turn to the specific topic of this debate: accessibility at Northwich railway station, in my hon. Friend’s constituency of Mid Chesire. I regret that Northwich station does not offer full step-free access. As he set out in his speech, the Chester-bound platform remains accessible only via a bridge with stairs. For wheelchair users, people with mobility needs, parents with pushchairs and travellers with luggage, this is a real challenge and hugely regrettable in 2025.

In 2022, the previous Government sought nominations for stations across Britain to benefit from upgrades as part of the Access for All programme. A total of 310 nominations were received, including for Northwich station; indeed, this nomination received strong support from my hon. Friend. The previous Government announced that the initial feasibility work would be undertaken for 50 of these projects, and as my hon. Friend knows, Northwich railway station was not one of the stations announced. Of course, it is not for me to comment on decisions made by the previous Government, but I absolutely recognise his disappointment and frustration at that decision.

My hon. Friend spoke clearly and passionately about the gable end of the station building collapsing into the Victorian canopy and the immense disruption that it caused to users of the station. As he observed, this created an opportunity to deliver step-free access at Northwich station. Again, I recognise my hon. Friend’s frustration that such an opportunity was not taken under the previous Government.

Let me now respond to some of the specific questions that my hon. Friend put to me. First, he asked whether the Department will publish the process by which stations will be submitted for consideration under future rounds of the Access for All programme. Our recently published rail accessibility road map includes a clear commitment to reform the Access for All programme as part of establishing Great British Railways. As colleagues may know, the Railways Bill recently had its First Reading. As the Bill progresses, we will be able to provide a clear timeline for reforms to the Access for All programme, but the House can be assured of our commitment to transparency and a reformed, more efficient approach to this programme.

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

The Minister is making a compelling case for why the Government are so insistent on making all stations accessible to ensure that everybody has access to public transport. In my home town of Redditch in Worcestershire, the plan for a newly redeveloped station has been cancelled by the local Reform-led council, just when this Government have pledged hundreds of millions of pounds to improve cross-city lines via the midlands rail hub. The plan was to bring the station up to compliant standards for accessibility. Does he share my frustration, and will he urge the county council to think again about the redevelopment plan?

[Simon Lightwood]

I do indeed share my hon. Friend’s frustration and that of, I suspect, hundreds of his constituents, who will continue to face challenges when using the rail network. We are very much committed to delivering a more accessible rail system, and I am sure he will continue to voice the thoughts of his constituents loud and clear to his local council.

Secondly, my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Cheshire asks about the timescale for the next tranche of Access for All stations, which will be announced soon. Network Rail has completed feasibility studies on the 50 stations selected by the previous Government, and in the coming months we will announce which of these will progress.

Thameslink Train Services

Debate between Simon Lightwood and Chris Bloore

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Simon Lightwood]

We are rewiring Britain’s railways to end decades of poor service, waste and timetable chaos. A unified, simplified railway will put passengers first, raise living standards and boost growth, as part of our plan for change. We will hear more about that when the railways Bill comes before Parliament.

Disruption due to train crew availability remains a priority for my Department. The Department’s officials are closely monitoring train crew availability levels and the actions that GTR is taking to improve, which will provide greater resilience in this area. I am pleased that there has been some improved performance in that area this year, but that must be sustained and improved on further. The Department has also commissioned work to understand, in detail, the impact of train crew availability on performance. That will look at issues such as staffing levels, recruitment, training, overtime and planning efficiency. It will outline recommendations to address those issues in the short, medium and long term.

On disruption due to infrastructure incidents, GTR and Network Rail continue to work closely to improve the reliability of the infrastructure used by Thameslink services to help to reduce associated delays and cancellations. A programme is currently under way to upgrade the overhead wires on the midland main line, and the central London Thameslink core had most of its rails replaced over the Christmas break, which will help to prevent track faults.

The Government are focused on restoring rail performance. We have been clear that rail services have been failing our passengers. The Rail Minister has met GTR and Network Rail to ensure that they are delivering on their plans to address Thameslink’s poor performance. Department officials, the Rail Minister and I will continue to closely review Thameslink’s progress for a sustained recovery in performance to deliver the punctual, reliable services that passengers and taxpayers deserve.

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

I apologise for being an interloper from the west midlands. The Minister rightly and importantly mentioned passengers being failed, but the fragmentation of our network has meant that we have been failing not only passengers but businesses, particularly those that want to invest in constituencies such as Redditch. Improved services are improved not only for passengers but for businesses deciding where they may relocate and invest.

[Simon Lightwood]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We must ensure that passengers are at the core of what we deliver, but the knock-on effect on businesses is also important. GBR will also focus on freight: how do we get some of the cargo transported by our roads on to our trains?

My hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) talked about the need for more train crew. GTR is particularly vulnerable to the effect of train crew availability issues—the problem tends to be the availability, rather than the number, of train crew—and of all Thameslink’s cancellations, 50% are attributed to train crew. That is largely due to historical terms and conditions and legacy agreements that mean that there is a high level of reliance on rest-day working.

I will close by confirming that this Government will continue to put passengers at the heart of what we do and deliver a railway of which, in its 200th year, we can be proud once again. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire again and acknowledge the importance of this matter to him and his constituents.

Question put and agreed to.