Slaithwaite & Marsden Action on Rail Transport is concerned to learn that the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will not, contrary to previous expectations, provide full disabled access to Marsden station.
It had been understood that the Northern Hub proposals, and the TRU which superseded them, would involve provision of full disabled access at stations along the route, not only Marsden but also Greenfield and Mossley. The expectation has been that the same standards for disabled access would apply as are being offered in the current consultation relating to stations east of Huddersfield.
On the basis that TRU would sort out disabled access issues, Marsden and other stations along the route have been excluded from bidding for Access for All funding for disabled access. It is completely unacceptable that overdue and necessary improvements to disabled access have been delayed on a basis which has now turned out to be false.
We expected TRU to be a catalyst to deliver essential improvements to disabled access. Instead, it has caused those improvements to be indefinitely deferred.
As a community Marsden has both a growing elderly population and an increase in families and in order for these groups to access the train service it is essential that disabled access issues are resolved.
It appears that the alternative sources of funding are subject to a bidding process in which a Marsden station bid could be competing against rival bids from, amongst others, the neighbouring stations of Greenfield and Mossley. This is no substitute for a comprehensive scheme which addresses access issues at all stations along the route, and it is unacceptable to try to play one station off against another.
Kirklees Council has, at very short notice, now been allowed to submit a bid for disabled access funding from other sources.
SMARTs view has been, and will continue to be, that provision of full disabled access at all stations along the route should be a core element of TRU rather than an optional extra. Notwithstanding this view, SMART is supportive of bids to secure disabled access from funding from other sources. It is on this basis that SMART supports the current submission from Kirklees Council.
The May 2018 timetable changes saw westbound trains using platform two rather than the accessible platform three. This represented a reduction in disabled access from 50% to 0%. We cannot think of anywhere else on the rail network where disabled access has been significantly reduced rather than improved. This was accepted on the understanding that it was intended to be a temporary reduction in disabled access pending the Transpennine Route Upgrade addressing these issues. It appears now that the reduction in disabled access is for an indefinite period, which cannot be considered an acceptable state of affairs.
We would further question the legality of reducing the level of disabled access with no plans as to how when or whether that level of disabled access will be reinstated and improved upon.
Whilst the height of platform two was raised in the Spring of 2019, notwithstanding claims to the contrary this did not address accessibility issues between the street and the platform.
For several months, SMART has been asking for answers to what ought to be simple questions regarding the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
Our modest aspirations for TRU are for it to deliver a local train service of two trains per hour, plus full disabled access at all stations. We are not asking for special treatment. We are merely asking for what most routes and stations in the Leeds and Manchester city regions already take for granted.
The unwarranted secrecy about TRU means that we cannot get answers to these basic questions. Senior figures in the railway industry are fond of talking about the need to involve passengers in decision making processes, but this shows that they do not mean it.
Leaked correspondence from Network Rail indicates severe disruption at communities including Marsden and Slaithwaite over a five year construction period. The communities affected should not, and cannot, be expected to be supportive of the TRU if it gives five years of disruption but fails to deliver basic improvements at the end of that period.
Network Rail claim to have undertaken consultation about potential disruption during the construction phase of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, but there has been no consultation in communities such as Marsden where the impact of disruption is likely to be greatest.
We call on Network Rail to enter into proper consultation with passengers and communities along the route, in a competent and professional manner. The consultation needs to cover both the outcomes which TRU will deliver and how disruption during the construction period will be managed.
We call upon the Secretary of State for Transport to direct Network Rail and his department to reinstate full disabled access at Marsden and all other stations along the route as a core element of the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
EDIT 02/11/2019
SMART understands that a bid has now been submitted for Access For All Mid Tier funding. This has been prepared by West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Kirklees Council and others. It is suggested that the bid has been fronted by WYCA, but we do not have confirmation of this. Whether the amounts involved, if approved, are sufficient to fully address access issues at Marsden, seems doubtful.
Notwithstanding the bid, which SMART supports, SMART continues to be of the opinion that the correct course of action is for the DfT to acknowledge that they should not have treated disabled access as an optional extra which could be deleted from the Transpennine Route Upgrade; and to reinstate disabled access as a core element of TRU.
In another possibly related development, Network Rail has during the week of 28th October been issuing questionnaires about disabled access at Marsden.
The survey can also be completed online at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeD0vr7H1dqBra8EIX213JGKFmO8fLaXd879eM2rYcHEyZcQ/viewform Even if you have nothing to put in some of the comments boxes, the form will be rejected unless you put something in every comments box.
Correspondence between Thelma Walker MP and the Department for Transport, below.
EDIT 12/02/2020
During the general election campaign our new MP, Jason McCartney, said that he was sorry to hear about the cancelled station upgrades.
He also said that he would do all he could to make the case for reinstating the plan for full disabled access, and that these issues would be high on his agenda.
The need for TRU to provide full disabled access at all stations along the route has also been highlighted at successive Transport for the North (TfN) board meetings, at which government minister were present, by both Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Councillor Judith Blake (West Yorkshire representative on the TfN board). Hopefully the ministers will listen and act upon what they heard, and over-rule those civil servants who think that disability access is some sort of low-priority optional extra.
UPDATE 26/02/2020
The list of stations given funding for accessibility improvements under the Access For All Mid-Tier funding was published today. Marsden and Slaithwaite are not on that list.