Pandora…

...injects some reality

Ruth Cadbury MP, Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee, wants the Government "to commit to setting out a road map within 12 months that details how it will meet its timescales for achieving independent accessibility across the rail network". (RAIL 1032, p12)

It's hard to know where to start, though a road-based metaphor probably isn't too clever. The laudable aim, of course, is that any passenger, however restricted in their mobility, should be able to get on or off any train at any station without needing assistance. That's defined the destination - now let's look at where we're starting from. We're pretty good nowadays in providing step-free access from the outside world to the platform. That's where the fun starts.

There are roughly 2500 stations. Most of them have two platforms. Some have more while a small number have lots more. But there are lots of stations with only one: for every Waterloo or Waverley there is a Golspie or - amazingly - a Hartlepool. We won't be far out if we say that there are a bit over 5000 platform edges. Most of these were constructed well over 100 years ago with little or no thought about how competing railways were building theirs: standards didn't exist apart from the rails being the same distance apart. But a bunch of MPs wants the industry to devise, within 12 months (far less time than they will take to bring GBR into existence) a plan (no nasty road-based metaphor for me) in effect to make the whole lot the same height within a centimetre or two.

While the engineers are busy with their concrete mixers (after the boys have been out with their measuring tapes) there remains the small problem that not all carriage doors are at the same height off the rail. Readers need travel only as far as West London where Piccadilly and District lines use the same stations. The former are much lower and quite a large step down is needed (or up, if one is getting off). Given the dozens of billions needed His Majesty's Treasury is unlikely to see much point in taking any of this further, and it's strange that they haven't said so.

While access to the railway is something we should all wish to see improved, there are quicker ways of making it happen. Properly staffed stations - all of them during the hours when a train is scheduled - each equipped with the half-dozen or so ramps to cope with the range of rolling stock likely to call. Preposterously expensive! Stupid suggestion! And Ruth Cadbury's isn't?

Mind you, a few Harrington Humps would be worth investing in, wouldn't they? Now that Dunkeld & Birnam (to give it its Sunday name) is being attended to, a couple at another difficult station would show - yet again - that Transport Scotland and ScotRail are in the vanguard of innovation.