Medical experts at HCE Medical Equipment have identified that a total of 180 UK train stations outside of London are completely inaccessible for those with mobility issues, with Argyll and Bute, and Stirling ranking as the top two least accessible regions.
This means that 180 stations don’t have any accessibility features, including the likes of ramps, automatic lifts, tactile surfaces, or level boarding.
As well as this, HCE found that the UK counties with the poorest train station accessibility are Argyll and Bute, Stirling, and Greater Manchester, therefore I believe that this would be of interest to your readers at Isle of Bute news.
Despite over 7.6 million people in the UK with mobility issues, 130 train stations in England are inaccessible, 39 train stations in Scotland are inaccessible, 6 train stations in Wales are inaccessible, and 10 train stations in NI are inaccessible.
To identify the percentage of non-accessible train stations, HCE analysed official data from National Rail to calculate the number of train stations that are fully or partially accessible, in comparison to the number of inaccessible train stations.
The top ten UK counties, outside of Greater London, with the least accessible train stations:
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Argyll and Bute – 42.85% inaccessible
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Stirling – 33.33% inaccessible
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Greater Manchester – 32.97% inaccessible
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Glasgow City – 32.20% inaccessible
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County Down – 27.70% inaccessible
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Armagh – 25% inaccessible
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Derry/Londonderry – 20% inaccessible
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West Midlands – 19.11% inaccessible
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Northamptonshire – 16.66% inaccessible
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Shropshire – 15.78% inaccessible
Prof. David Hart at HCE said that if a train station is inaccessible, then train services have to legally provide free alternative transport, to take passengers to the nearest accessible station that they will be able to continue their journey from.
As well as this, David explained that individuals with disabilities or poor mobility are legally entitled to passenger assistance in all train stations, to ensure that they can quickly and safely make it to their platform.
“If you require assistance in a train station, the passenger assist service can be booked up to two hours prior to your journey”, David said.
“Alternatively, there is a ‘turn up and go’ service at the train station for passengers who haven’t booked ahead of time. This is a helpful service for certain train stations as although they may be classed as ‘accessible’ they can still have
