Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says easier boarding should be designed into new trains, helping disabled passengers travel more independently.
New trains ordered for Great British Railways will be designed for level boarding wherever possible, under a government commitment aimed at making rail journeys easier for disabled passengers and others who struggle with the gap between trains and platforms.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander highlighted the pledge after Labour's conference in Liverpool, saying: "A train without level boarding is a job you can't take." The line echoed her conference speech, in which she argued that inaccessible transport can limit people's opportunities.
Under the plan, unassisted level boarding will become a baseline expectation for new Great British Railways trains. The Department for Transport says they will be designed to reduce the barrier between carriages and standard Network Rail platforms wherever possible. The change could also make journeys easier for older passengers, parents with pushchairs and people carrying luggage.
The commitment applies to new trains, not the entire existing fleet. Nor does the government say level boarding will be possible at every platform. Its published wording is more qualified than Alexander's social-media statement that "all new Great British Railways trains will be level boarding, as standard".
The government says designing accessibility in from the outset is not expected to add significant costs in most cases. It has also pointed to almost £280 million announced this year for step-free access at stations through the Access for All programme. Step-free access to a station and level boarding onto a train are separate challenges; passengers need both for a fully accessible journey.
Alexander's conference speech made the wider case for a publicly run railway that puts passengers first. The test for the new commitment will be how consistently level boarding is delivered as Great British Railways orders trains and works with stations whose platform layouts vary across the network.
