The Association of British Commuters, Disabled People Against Cuts, National Pensioners Convention, and National Federation of the Blind of the UK have made their first challenge to the Secretary of State for Transport on the missing public interest duties from Great British Railways.
Four urgent demands were made in a letter dispatched on Wednesday:
- Extend the Great British Railways consultation deadline to 12 weeks, with a significant outreach program to explain the impact of proposals on passengers, taxpayers, disabled people and all protected groups.
- Provide accessibility and equality measures to ensure the widest possible participation of the 16 million disabled people in the UK.
- Publish the cost impact assessment immediately, as is standard with such important consultations. This must show how the Department considered its Public Sector Equality Duty, since all accessibility commitments have been dropped from the new plan.
- Restore questions on public interest duties and GBR’s founding purpose, including the previous government’s commitments to “maximise social and economic value” and consider accessibility and environment in all decisions.
Since our letter was sent, an article in Disability News Service has confirmed that the Department for Transport (DfT) has no intention of consulting on public interest duties at any point in the GBR legislative process. Our demands could not be more urgent – if the duties are not restored to the consultation now, they will be excluded from Great British Railways legislation altogether.
Why the future of accessibility depends on GBR public interest duties
- Consulting on the accessibility duty is a chance to put civil rights such as Turn Up And Go at the heart of the GBR Licence, or even the new primary legislation itself.
- In conjunction with the overarching socioeconomic duty, the accessibility duty could lead directly to national action plans and compliance deadlines for full infrastructure accessibility – the ‘holy grail’ of accessible transport.
- A GBR with strong public interest duties would have to take over all ticket retail and accessibility areas currently controlled by the Rail Delivery Group, which has long been developing key accessibility technologies outside any sort of consultation, regulation or equality due process.
- Strong accessibility duties throughout GBR would entail comprehensive regulation of accessibility – which must be a rights-based model much closer to how safety is treated by the railway. Currently, plans for regulation are vague and confused, with no clarity on whether the rail regulator, ORR will remain responsible, or whether this will be passed off to ‘passenger watchdog’ Transport Focus.
There can be no doubt of the public’s strength of feeling on these matters. The Minister for Transport must turn back from this new idea of a stripped down, deregulated GBR, and must not sacrifice the chance to create a proper equality, human rights, and climate framework for the railway.
For more information: contact@abcommuters.com
abcommuters.com 