EXCLUSIVE: Accessibility under threat due to increase in driver only trains and unstaffed stations

New research from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) indicates a significant withdrawal of rail accessibility since the beginning of lockdown in March. It compiles detailed information on 2556 stations to provide a complete staffing profile; demonstrating the impact of station destaffing and driver-only trains on accessibility.

The data shows that up to 54% of stations are completely unstaffed, with as few as 12% staffed at all times. Most shockingly of all, the ‘toxic combination’ of driver-only trains and unstaffed stations could now be preventing accessibility at up to 16.8% of Britain’s stations (up from 12.1% of stations in February.)

According to the data, Govia Thameslink Railway is by far the worst offender for the combination of driver only trains and unstaffed stations. In February, this prevented assistance capability at 126 locations. By May this figure had increased to 215 due to the removal of ontrain staff as well as ticket office closures/reductions.

According to May’s figures, train operators are running unstaffed trains through unstaffed stations at 430 locations: GTR (215), Southeastern (73), Greater Anglia (58), Great Western Railway (32), Chiltern (26), c2c (23), Heathrow Express (3), and Stobart Rail (1).

Our Freedom of Information request to DPTAC

This data was released to us after an FOI request to DPTAC, the Department for Transport’s statutory advisors on accessibility. DPTAC has consistently raised strong objections to the ‘toxic combination’ of driver only trains and unstaffed stations since the beginning of the Southern Rail guards dispute of 2016. The ‘urgent’ and ‘unmet’ need for detailed data on staffing was the headline demand of each of their submissions to the Williams Rail Review, so the release of this information is sure to be highly controversial within the Department for Transport.

In May, the Chair of DPTAC defended their data collection to Rupert Furness, Head of Active and Accessible Travel at the DfT. To view the email, click here.

Another email chain confirms that the Department for Transport has sought legal advice on driver-only trains and unstaffed stations, after warnings from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. To view the document, click here.

Urgent Action Now Required

DPTAC’s research shows that the staffing model on Britain’s railway is not fit for purpose. In particular, it demonstrates the discriminatory effect of driver-only trains and how rapidly they can affect accessibility when there are reductions to the already low levels of station staffing.

With Govia Thameslink Railway once again firmly in the frame for withdrawing assistance capability at stations, it is vital that the Go Ahead Group and the DfT’s Peter Wilkinson are asked to respond to this data at the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday. They were the architects of the removal of guards on GTR, and it’s now clear that this is having a regressive effect on equality of access.

With further cuts to railway staffing being rumoured, we will be calling on the Transport Select Committee and Office of Rail and Road to ensure that this data continues to be published regularly, as the best way to monitor what on-the-ground changes are being made to stafffing. Train operators must already provide this information under the ORR’s new Assisted Travel Policy, so it should require few resources to collate the information in a transparent and centralised manner. This has been a headline demand from DPTAC to the DfT for years, and they have made clear that accurate, up-to-date data is the only possible basis for a ‘whole system’ overview of railway accessibility.

For further information on DPTAC’s demands for data and accessibility see their January 2019 and May 2019 submissions to the Williams Rail Review.

For a background of our FOI requests to DPTAC, click here.

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