Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 27 November (HL339), why the steel sidebars on the disability buggies at Euston station were replaced in the last two weeks; what was the cost of installing the original ones and replacing them with the new ones; and who was responsible for making the decision on both sets of bars.

Following an incident involving a passenger on one of the buggies at Euston Station, Network Rail undertook a safety investigation. One of the outputs from the investigation was to ensure safety bars were present on all buggies. Network Rail found that the design of the bars caused issues for some passengers getting on and off the buggies. Therefore, Network Rail replaced them with the newly designed safety bars which allows more of the bar to be pushed back into its housing, resulting in more space for passengers to get on and off.

The cost of installing the original bars and then replacing them with the new bars was £2617.20 excluding VAT. The decision for the bars to be replaced was made by the Route’s Head of Stations.