Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure frequent and reliable transport is available and accessible to all rail commuters.

As the pandemic is changing travel habits, operators are reassessing their services to ensure they provide rail timetables that meet new passenger travel patterns and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance. New timetables will be flexible enough to deliver the right services where they are needed most, and operators will work with their local markets wherever possible to achieve this.

Our aim is to make all journeys accessible for all passengers. The Department has, extended the Access for All programme until 2024 at a cost of almost £400 million. So far, over 200 stations have benefitted from step-free accessible routes and over 1500 from smaller scale access improvements.

In addition, the Department continues to support initiatives, such as the Passenger Assist app, and is using the rail contracting process to make the network more accessible by introducing new requirements on train and station operators, such as the introduction of an enhanced disability awareness training for all customer-facing staff, and those with management responsibilities.

A new National Rail Accessibility Strategy is currently being developed by the Great British Railways Transition Team which will set out how we and the rail industry can work towards accessibility for all passengers.