Transport Secretary pledges half a million to help make 300 stations in Britain accessible for all by 2024.
Transport Secretary and MP for Welwyn Hatfield Grant Shapps visited Hatfield Station in support of ‘Purple Tuesday.’ Purple Tuesday is a campaign designed to encourage organisations to become more accessible for disabled people.
Whilst there, Mr Shapps said: “This happens to be my constituency, but accessibility for all is a national programme.
“The purpose is to make travel accessible for everybody regardless of who they are.
“We’ve already upgraded 200 stations, and there’s another 100 to come by 2024.”
Mr Shapps met with staff at Hatfield station to see what improvements had been made to the station.
Karen Sherwin, Station Manager said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be promoting Purple Tuesday.
“We did a big re-development in 2016…we have lifts, accessibility ramps and our station is manned 24/7 to look after all our customers.”
The bus interchange and lift-accessible footbridge were also included as part of the extensive upgrades to Hatfield Station.
Grant Shapps pledged money to help with the 100 upgrades. saying:
“We’re pledging half-a-million pounds to go into more work and more research.”
This money will fund a competition between small and medium-sized businesses to develop innovative new ways to help disabled people travel.
Mr Shapps said: “This will make sure that our railway network, designed by the Victorians, is available to everybody today.”
You can view a video of the visit below: