_edited.jpg)
Today, during a Westminster Hall debate on step free access at stations, I raised the importance of step-free access at Leuchars train station and urged the Minister to update the House on the Access for All Scheme. The scheme is meant to give funding to train stations to improve their accessible access. There have also been difficulties coordinating the fund between the Scottish and UK Governments.
Access for All is meant to be a vital means of making public transport accessible, yet it is now over three years since I started asking about how Leuchars station could apply – and we’re still being pushed from pillar to post. Ensuring all services are accessible is absolutely vital, no one should be forced to take different routes or experience difficulties getting around stations. The Access for All Fund would allow lifts to be built and ramps to be replaced with less steep, better suited ones. I hope that Leuchars station will be considered properly for funding.
Speaking during the debate, I said:
“One of the challenges for myself as a Scottish MP is the fact that the Scottish Government are responsible for nominating stations for Access for All, but then it’s a UK Government fund.
“My own station in Leuchars, St Andrews, is a huge challenge because of the vast numbers of people that come to visit St Andrews.
“I understand that the Leader of the House said that the Minister was considering the future of the Access for All fund, does he agree with me that what we’re hoping to hear is a commitment to that fund?”
I also pressed the Government for a timescale on the implementation of the Access for All scheme:
“Can we get a time scale on that? It sounds like a lot of warm words of commitment, but the communities are waiting now with an expectation, so what time scales are the Government working to?