Half of railway stations in Flintshire and Wrexham do not have complete step-free access for disabled passengers

This means countless disabled people in Wales cannot use more than one in five of railway stations, according to disability charity Leonard Cheshire.

The charity says the current situation means disabled people are being excluded from travelling by train from their local station for work, education or to see friends and loved ones.

In Wrexham and Flintshire - 50 per cent of stations do not have full step-free access.

Wrexham General has step-free access

In Flintshire and Wrexham, seven of the fourteen stations do not have step-free access according to National Rail's accessibility map.

This includes Shotton - one of the busiest stations in North East Wales - which is on both the Holyhead to Chester line and Liverpool to Wrexham line.

Shotton railway station has two platforms

In Flintshire, only Flint, Hawarden Bridge, Buckley and Caergwrle have step free access. Shotton, Hawarden, Penyffordd, Hope and Cefyn-y-bedd do not.

In Wrexham, Wrexham Central and Wrexham General stations in the town centre both have step free access, as does Chirk. Gwersyllt and Ruabon stations do not.

The UK government is set to miss its own targets for making all railway stations step-free by 40 years, analysis by Leonard Cheshire has revealed.

Even at an improved rate of 19 stations a year being made step-free from October 2019, work across the whole rail network wouldn’t be completed until 2070 as part of the UK government’s Access for All funded projects.

As recently as October 2018, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport spoke of a “system that offers equal access to disabled people by 2030”.

As the public prepares for one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel, Leonard Cheshire’s research shows more than a third (38 per cent) of rail stations across England, Scotland and Wales are still not step-free.

Most of the train operating companies have not made any changes over the past twelve months. Only six have increased the number of step-free stations they operate by over 5 per cent, with just three delivering these improvements at 10 per cent or more of their stations. Overall, the percentage of stations that are step-free has changed by under 5 per cent in all but two regions in the UK.

Chirk is one of the region's more accessible stations

Leonard Cheshire is now campaigning for legislation that will compel the government and rail operators to ensure all stations are fit for use by disabled people by 2030. It wants end to end journeys to be fully accessible from the purchase of a ticket through to station and on-board train information.

Joshua Reeves, who is a Leonard Cheshire employee and founder of the ‘Don’t Call Me Special’ campaign, was travelling to Pontypool train station to deliver a talk at an event with Lloyd’s Bank. However, when he arrived at Cwmbran train station for his pre-arranged taxi to Pontypool, it had failed to materialise, and he had to wait at Cwmbran station for over an hour until a wheelchair-accessible taxi became available. This caused him to miss his speaking slot at the event.

Despite confirming the return journey, it was also rife with problems and included another hour–long wait for the replacement taxi to arrive due to an extreme shortage of wheelchair accessible taxis in areas outside of Cardiff. Joshua was understandably upset:

“The failure of support from Transport for Wales resulted in me missing an important work opportunity and was extremely stressful My experience isn’t unique sadly and I’ve heard similar stories. The current rail system doesn’t work for disabled people and we have to work harder to ensure accessibility on the railways is guaranteed not delivered in the haphazard way I experienced.”

Neil Heslop, chief executive of Leonard Cheshire, said: “This is a timely reminder that our current rail network often excludes disabled people from making journeys others take for granted.

“As families look to enjoy the festive season together, accessibility issues will add unnecessary stress to disabled travellers who negotiate a sub-standard network every day.

"We call on Boris Johnson to prioritise the acceleration of Access for All, so disabled people can enjoy the life opportunities provided through modern, accessible rail travel.”