Ahh I see. I think I'd missed the freight issue and had no idea about the walkers either!
So to allow a train to park is worth a new footbridge with lifts- that just sounds an amazing cost. And I'm trying to imagine the fellwalkers and runners waiting for the lift ...The problem is that a new freight service will be introduced which requires the train, to access the siding, to be plonked across it for a considerable period of time before reversing in.
So to allow a train to park is worth a new footbridge with lifts- that just sounds an amazing cost. And I'm trying to imagine the fellwalkers and runners waiting for the lift ...
So to allow a train to park is worth a new footbridge with lifts- that just sounds an amazing cost. And I'm trying to imagine the fellwalkers and runners waiting for the lift ...
Just a reminder that the proposal to add lifts comes from the local authority - and the cost will presumably be partly borne by the freight facility.This proposal is how we make the railways less accessible, not more accessible - by incrementally pricing them out of contention with other forms of transport.
I don't know the location so cannot comment on that.
Just because a footpath isn't currently wheelchair accessible does not mean you should not make provision for it to be so.
I'm afraid the Law requires that any current or future works are fully PRM compliant. There are quite a number of hitherto inaccessible by wheelchair walks that are now accessed by the current range of multi terrain wheelchairs. Many of those servicemen and women injured in Afghanistan have led the way in showing just what can be done whilst using a wheelchair designed for such conditions.I would suggest you need to know the location before making a pronouncement of that kind. It is not feasible for the footpath to be wheelchair accessible. You'd just be making provision for a wheelchair user to get into an adjacent field for no purpose.
I'm afraid the Law requires that any current or future works are fully PRM compliant.
There are quite a number of hitherto inaccessible by wheelchair walks that are now accessed by the current range of multi terrain wheelchairs. Many of those servicemen and women injured in Afghanistan have led the way in showing just what can be done whilst using a wheelchair designed for such conditions.
Have you ever actually walked up the footpath in question? If not please do so before making judgement.
Lift shafts needn’t be ugly. At Hebden Bridge they have clad them in wood and they blend in nicely. I’m sure that modern materials can be made sympathetic to the station design. If done right the lift shafts could be clad from local stone and there’s absolutely no reason why the actual stairs and bridge cannot be of the Midland Gothic design using modern methods.
Surely as much as it pains me to say it a Barnetby style footbridge (monstrousertery) would be better with ramps for wheelchair users and a shorter stepped route for everyone else.
No. I've not walked the footpath in question. Closest I've got is Google Maps.No, it doesn't, not least those works that are not providing for passengers.
Have you ever actually walked up the footpath in question? If not please do so before making judgement.
Have you looked at All Terrain wheelchairs? Suggest you look at Terrainhopper and Action Trackchair to give you an idea of what kind of thing is used.
They still won't get up there! A wheelchair capable of getting any sensible distance up that path would also be capable of climbing a flight of stairs.
I don't know the site myself, but looking at pictures there is a steep bank behind the "far" platform, as might be expected for a station where the railway follows a contour on a slope. This would need digging back several metres to make a big enough hole for the stairs and lifts, probably requiring a prolonged closure to bring in that sort of excavation plant. If not washed away by the rain in the meantime, it would then need a major retaining wall, all of which would have to be built in situ even if the subway itself could be pre-fabricated and jacked in. I can't find an overall view of the forecourt, but it seems to be a sloping approach road up to the level of the platform, and if that's correct then much of it would need to be dug out to make the space to launch said subway under the tracks. The railway needs to be on a fairly high embankment for a jacked structure to work.
The station approach is quite a way below the track at the point it turns right and continues to ascend towards the station building.
Yes, there would need to be work to excavate behind the platform, but you wouldn't need access across the tracks all of the time. Plant and materials could be moved in and out at the end of the day.
At the risk of being branded a heretic I've idly wondered if at a station like this whether a barrow crossing wouldn't make more sense...
Can anyone think of a modern station bridge with lifts which isn't a monstrosity? I won't expect a monstrosity will be acceptable here, so it will be interesting to see how they manage it.
Nope. Specifically the extra height for the lift towers tends to make them ugly (can't they use piston lifts and bury the mechanism underground?)
So to allow a train to park is worth a new footbridge with lifts- that just sounds an amazing cost. And I'm trying to imagine the fellwalkers and runners waiting for the lift ...
No - allowing people of all abilities to use the station and the trains serving it is the key.
You have rather missed the point, which is that the barrow crossing could remain for disabled users (of which there won't be many, as the station doesn't get a lot of passengers - and it could have remotely-locked gates with an intercom and CCTV to the signal box to avoid it being used when it wasn't needed). The purpose of the bridge would be for pedestrians to get across when there was shunting going on (at which point the other platform would be blocked, so nobody would need to get to it to catch a train). Given that the path beyond the station goes up a big hill with a rough path, no-one who isn't capable of using a footbridge with steps would be able to go up there either.
Obviously, where there's a genuine need for people with disabilities to be able to get over a bridge then this should be made possible, but tokenistic gestures don't seem to have much purpose.
There's also a reasonableness clause in there somewhere I believe.But doesn't that totally miss the point of the Equalities Act? The idea is that the standard access arrangements should be equally useable to both able bodied and PRM's. Making "Special Arrangements" for PRM's is not being equal!
But doesn't that totally miss the point of the Equalities Act? The idea is that the standard access arrangements should be equally useable to both able bodied and PRM's. Making "Special Arrangements" for PRM's is not being equal!
If you read the earlier comments today you will see that PRM's with their wheelchairs have completed the Three Peaks, so they can go beyond the platform.What would you be denying them access to? They'd be able to get across to the other platform via the barrow crossing when needing to catch a train, and if not catching a train wouldn't need to get over there as the path the other side would be inaccessible to them anyway.
Special arrangements exist in many areas - and pressing a button on an intercom and asking for the barrow crossing to be unlocked hardly comes into that category anyway.
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If you read the earlier comments today you will see that PRM's with their wheelchairs have completed the Three Peaks, so they can go beyond the platform.
Whilst Special Arrangements may well exist in many places, any new works is required to comply with the Equalities Act and that means equal usage and equal access, so using an intercom DOES come into that category. There's also the the inequality of a PRM being delayed because the barrow crossing is unsafe to use whilst an able bodied person is not delayed because they can use the bridge, again, that's not equal treatment.
It's a totally mute point anyway in relation to the access arrangements between the platforms. The arrangements need to be wheelchair accessible, as they should be.