Blog by Jack Williamson, Senior Political Consultant for Transport and Infrastructure
Transport policy is fast becoming a priority for the new Labour government, with five related Bills announced in the 2024King’s Speech and pay deals already being negotiated with unions. However, before a new agenda of reform and investment begins, consideration must begiven to the accessibility of the UK’s transport networks.
Select Committee Inquiry
In February 2023 the Transport Select Committee launched an inquiry examining the effectiveness of legislation that requires transport providers to make services more accessible. The committee received written evidence from 72 organisations and individuals, with submissions expressing a consistent view that accessibility was poor throughout the transport sector and that regulations needed to be updated to reflect modern travel.
The evidence also cited inadequate enforcement of accessibility legislation, regular and repeated breaches of the Equality Act and confusion around rules governing the provision of accessible transport. In response, former Transport Committee Chair Iain Stewart MP, said:
“The huge amount of written evidence we received on accessible transport has made it clear that current legislation doesn’t do enough to support disabled people. Currently, the enforcement of accessibility rules and laws is inadequate, and passengers shouldn’t shoulder the expensive and stressful burden of bringing court action against operators when they are mistreated.”
The Built Environment
Passengers with access needs face a myriad of issues when using the UK’s transport networks. Research from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) found that job and leisure choices were often limited to the places that were the easiest to get to, with reduced travel options found to impact on people’s ability to live independently and exacerbate social isolation. The RNIB also found that the level of planning and preparation required to travel was significantly greater for a blind or partially sighted person, with the need to commit much more to memory when travelling meaning they experienced a high cognitive load, which could be exhausting. Unexpected delays, changes or cancellations could also be disproportionately draining to navigate.
Improvements to the built environment can be key to improving accessibility for all, and there is a growing demand for transport networks to incorporate best practice in the design phase through:
• Physical features: Tactile paving, detectible curbs, handrails, lifts, clear routes, step-free access
• Visual clarity: Clear signage and markings, colour contrast
• Audio design: Accurate, frequent, and clear audio announcements on buses and trains.
However, consistency of these design features and services varies greatly across transport modes and regions, being especially poor in rural areas. Accessible design is not just about the built environment, but also includes the digital spaces and products used to access information to plan a journey or buy tickets.
Technology and Innovation
A Motability Foundation report (2022) on The Transport Accessibility Gap, outlined how 5G and AI technology could be harnessed to pro-actively identify customer needs and prepare for them, improving journey planning and reliability, while also having direct contact with customers through instantaneous feedback channels. The report also found that the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles was already changing transport networks and provided a unique opportunity to address the transport accessibility gap. In the short term, driver assistance features, such as lane keep and parking assistance, offer tangible benefits to all drivers, improving vehicle safety and ease of operation.
Innovation in the transport sector isn’t just limited to new technology, with data gathered from customers also key to informing investors and researchers of passenger needs, so they can deliver increasingly accessible products and services.
However, technology can also be a barrier to accessibility. A House of Commons research briefing (2022) on Access to transport for disabled people found that the use of apps and technology was relatively low, with only 20 percent of disabled people surveyed having used a digital map of a train station, 7 percent having used an app to help with travel, and 12 percent having used their mobile to find real-time information about facilities. The reasons given for low take-up of technology included inconsistency of availability and functionality of apps across transport providers, as well as overall limitations in the functionality of apps in providing for disabled passengers, such as not being able to specify needs when booking a taxi or not displaying maintenance work that affected accessibility.
The research briefing did find that audio-visual information on buses was found to be useful, with 75 percent of respondents reporting it ‘moderately’ or ‘very helpful’. However, AV availability on buses tended to be predominantly concentrated in London and other urban locations.
What’s Next?
The Transport Select Committee’s ‘Accessible transport: legal obligations’ inquiry confirmed the immediate importance of improving access to the UK’s transport networks. It will now be the responsibility of the new Transport Select Committee Chair, who will come from the Labour party, and new members to hold the Government to account. Progress must be made to ensure that disabled and vulnerable passengers are involved in co-producing solutions which guarantee accessibility across all modes and environments.
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