'Bid to improve platform access for disabled' at Dorchester (22/06/09)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Dorset Echo:

Train passengers with mobility problems in Dorchester are fed up with having to take time-consuming detours to Weymouth.

The northbound platform at Dorchester West station is off-limits to wheelchair passengers and parents with buggies because it can only be reached by an overhead footbridge with steps.

Passengers who can^t reach the platform have to take a 13-mile round-trip south to Weymouth before they can board a northbound train on the First Great Western line to Bath and Bristol.

Now they are calling for rail chiefs to provide better access to the platform.

Chris Irwin, of Fordington, who had a stroke 11 years ago, uses a buggy. He said: ^We first discussed it a few months ago with Dorset County Council and it^s a bit sad that the plans keep getting shelved. I think more people would use the line and go to Bristol if the platform was accessible.^

Terri Bartlett, chairman of the Dorchester Access Group, said the group has been fighting to improve access to the platform for a number of years. She said: ^It^s very frustrating that we haven^t got anywhere with this. What we are asking for is a long ramp with a parking area at the bottom with access halfway along Williams Avenue.^

The group, along with the Dorchester Area Community Partnership, has made a plea to Dorset County Council to re-submit a bid for access funding to Network Rail.

A previous bid was unsuccessful after the rail company said there wasn^t enough demand for a ramp.

Susan Blake, a member of the community railway partnership, said it was ^self-evident^ that there is a demand. ^For a county town it^s sad that we haven^t got proper access at this station. People using Dorchester South can drive over to the other platform by road but you can^t do that at Dorchester West.^

A Network Rail spokeswoman said: ^So far the station has not been allocated any funding under the Department for Transport^s Access for All scheme. This does not mean that the Government is dismissive of the bid. We will continue to provide the guidance to the council in reviewing their bid and will also continue to work with First Great Western to do what we can to meet passengers^ needs.^

Tim Westwood, the county council^s traffic manager, said that the authority will be re-submitting a stronger bid. He added: ^We are aware of the difficulties that wheelchair users and people with push-chairs have accessing the northbound platform at Dorchester West station. Our last bid was unsuccessful due to the relatively low number of passengers using the services compared with other applications. We plan on bidding again and will be holding further discussions with local groups and organisations to make our new application stronger.^

[Lee]

Dorchester West may have been a victim of the "Dorchester BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))" factor regarding the previous failed Access For All bid.

The amount of Access For All funding that a station could qualify for is dependent on how many people officially use the station - ie for every thousand passengers that officially use a station, the station qualifies for an indicative ^1000 in Access For All funding, up to a maximum of ^250,000.

Official station usage stats in recent years for Dorchester West:

2002/03 - 242
2004/05 - 301
2005/06 - 236
2006/07 - 172
2007/08 - 65,977

Therefore, Dorchester West may indeed stand a better chance of securing Access For All funding if the bid is re-submitted now.

[Tim]

Just some background on the ticketing statistics problem as applied to Dorchester.

Dorcester has two stations.  Dorcester West on the "Heart of Wessex" line from Westbury.  Dorcester South is on the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) line to/from Waterloo.   Dorcester South is undoubtedly the busier station.

All tickets to Dorcester are sold to "Dorcester staions" with no distinction made between the two stations.

When the ticket station statistics are analysised the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) practice was to allocate all the ticket sales to the busier station.  That means that Dorcester West got all of the "Dorcester Stations" tickets.  The couple of hundred tickets allocated to Dorcester West were probably tickets that were miss-sold (most likely senario being a conductor on a train on the Heart of Wessex line which was going to Dorcester west selling a ticket to that station rather than to the group station - no harm done by that but it is aginst the policy.

The 2007/08 statistics are more accurate because an attempt is made to correct for the previous sourse of error (usually involving a bit of passenger sampling, some assumptions (ie - all tickets from Bristol will be assumed to go to Dorcester West, tickest from Weymouth will be split between South and West in proportion to the number of departures to each, that kind of thing) and a bit of guess work)

gettingteh stats right are important because a false figure might suggest that a station was poorly used and coud have investment denied or servcies withdrawn.  Where the two stations are served by different TOCS (ie FGW^▸ (First Great Western) andSWT in teh case of Dorcester) there must also be revenue allocation issues

[Tim]

The amount of Access For All funding that a station could qualify for is dependent on how many people officially use the station - ie for every thousand passengers that officially use a station, the station qualifies for an indicative ^1000 in Access For All funding, up to a maximum of ^250,000.

Official station usage stats in recent years for Dorchester West:

2002/03 - 242
2004/05 - 301
2005/06 - 236
2006/07 - 172
2007/08 - 65,977

Therefore, Dorchester West may indeed stand a better chance of securing Access For All funding if the bid is re-submitted now.

^65,000 seems very cheap for a new foot-bridge.

[Lee]

^65,000 seems very cheap for a new foot-bridge.

What needs to be borne in mind is that Access For All funding is not generally designed to pay for an entire scheme. Rather, it is likely to be a contribution alongside funding from other stakeholders. Example:

Bristol City Council Press Release :

Fifty-four more trains per week on Severn Beach Line

Bristol City Council is investing ^395k pa on providing more train services on the Severn Beach Line under a three year contract with First Great Western, starting on 18 May 2008. The funding will provide an extra two-coach train set and traincrews, and will establish a roughly 40 minute train frequency on the route. This will mean three trains every two hours in both directions between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth (Monday to Saturday). In the mornings and evenings most services continue to Severn Beach, and between the morning and evening peaks one train every two hours goes beyond Avonmouth (replacingingthe current bus link. Also, for the first time, there will be an hourly service between Bristol Temple Meads and Avonmouth on Sundays.

In all, Bristol City Council will fund fifty four more round trips a week for the Severn Beach Line including eight on a Sunday. 

Monday to Friday - an additional eight round trips per day, making 23 round trips in total - ( a greater than 50% increase on last May)

Saturday - an additional six round trips, making 22 in total

Sunday - a completely new service of eight round trips 

... and better stations too ^

Stations in Greater Bristol including all those on the popular Severn Beach Railway will benefit from over ^400,000 of new funding including ^196,500 Access for All funding from the Department of Transport which was achieved through two bids from the West of England Partnership and Bristol City Council.

The project is also funded by Bristol City Council, First Great Western and South Gloucestershire Council. Work will commence in April 2008. The work will be finished by March 2009. 

The awards mean that stations along the route, and Patchway in South Gloucestershire, will benefit from improved signage, lighting, seating, access routes, shelters and customer information.

The Severn Beach Line has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the last 10 years and now carries over half a million passengers a year. 

Councillor Mark Bradshaw, Executive Member for Access and Environment, said: ^We are pleased that the service improvements and station upgrades will now become a reality. The financial support from Bristol City Council and its partners has been key to this and demonstrates the strength of our joint working arrangements. The improvements have been long awaited and will help to offer the prospect of a more reliable service. 

^We now intend to look at additional measures such as Clifton turnback, to improve reliability, if technical and funding issues can be resolved. And we will want to see how, working with partners, we can better promote the services and encourage more people to make use of them. 

^We view local rail services as a key part of our overall shared aim to encourage less use of the car. We are committed to working with our partners to achieve improved local and strategic rail services. The West of England Partnership has met with the Rail Minister Tom Harris MP^▸ (Member of Parliament). We have a clear success story in the Severn Beach package. We now want to take this further and work towards improvements to the region's rail network.^

BCC^» (Bristol City Council - about) bid
Total scheme cost ^220,500
BCC and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) combined ^110,500
DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) ^110,500

WEP bid
Total scheme cost ^180,000
BCC c.^74,000
S.Glos Council c.^20,000
DfT ^86,000 

Stations along the route are:

Avonmouth; Clifton Down; Lawrence Hill; Montpelier; Redland; St Andrews; Sea Mills; Severn Beach; Shirehampton; Stapleton Road.

Patchway Station in South Gloucestershire will also benefit from improvements as part of the scheme.

[grahame]

As I read the report ... although it says that the footbridge is inadequate for access to the Bristol bound platform, the campaign is not to replace / improve the footbridge, but rather to put in a ramp to the road behind the station which will allow flat / gently sloping access.   

This is a much lower cost option than a footbridge - similar to being adopted at Bradford-on-Avon (?) and certainly the sort of alternative we would look at  for Melksham if the TransWilts was redoubled to allow substantial extra freight and an appropriate passenger service.  If there's an existing road bridge that will get people over to the other side without steps, it can be a very effective access solution.

[ReWind]

There are many stations/platforms on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) network which need to be made accessible for Disabled customers.

Lawrence Hill ( Bristol side )
Parson Street
Severn Tunnel Junction
Bradford - on - Avon ( Bath side )
Castle Cary ( Weymouth sides )
Avoncliff
Dilton Marsh
St. Andrews Road
Chetnole
Thornford
Pilning ( Cardiff side )
Iver
Burnham


Just to name a few.  Im sure there are many more too.

[Phil]

Chippenham. Completely inaccessible for disabled people without them being escorted half-way back to Thingley Junction and across the lines to reach the island platform, from which both Up and Down trains depart.
 
Persons are instructed to ask a member of staff for assistance, but these are typically located in a little hut on the island platform.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Nailsea & Backwell: excellent ramp access to the up platform, but only a steep flight of steps to the down platform.