‘Access to transport and high streets should be right for all, not a daily gauntlet’

I give a final grateful smile as my knight in Nike trainers gently sets the pram wheels down on Church Road and carries on his way.

Today, I got lucky running the gauntlet of getting the train back to Lawrence Hill. If there is no one able to help, then the ‘simple’ task of getting off the train and navigating several flights of steep steps up to the road with an increasingly heavy baby in a pram is almost impossible.

I’m still not used to relying so much on the kindness of strangers. Sure, it does give me a bit more faith in humanity that so many are willing to stop and help, but access to essential transport links shouldn’t rely on this. Sometimes there is no one around who is able to lend a hand – and not knowing whether or not there will be – renders each journey a tense gamble.

Lawrence Hill has an accessible platform on one side but the other can only be reached via three flights of steep steps. It’s not alone either, with Parson Street, Stapleton Road and, further down the line, Weston-super-Mare among those that are not fully accessible in the Bristol area.

And access to trains is just the start of it. The walk from St George to get to the station meant twice walking into the road – and potentially the path of oncoming cars – at points where the pavement was blocked by parked cars or building work. I’ve lost count of how many times pavements around my neighbourhood have been impossible to navigate with a pram.

Walking around my neighbourhood with a pram often means having to walk into the road when pavements are blocked – photo: Ellie Pipe

Pavement parking adds to the problem of accessibility around Bristol – photo: Ellie Pipe

I’m very aware that this, for me, is a temporary inconvenience to endure while my baby is small enough to need a pram to get about.

For so many people, this is daily life – a gauntlet just to try to access transport links, shops and services and barriers that might not be so easily overcome with the help of kind strangers. Many flights of steps would be impossible for a wheelchair user to navigate, even with assistance.

I spoke to one wheelchair user and transport campaigner about the issues around access. He said that each journey he takes must be meticulously planned. He often needs to backtrack to find an accessible route and described regularly facing long waits for wheelchair-accessible replacement taxis when trains aren’t running.

This shouldn’t be the case in 2023. Yet, while pretty much everyone would welcome work to address the issue of accessibility, there seems to be little urgency to take action. For years, there have been hopes and promises that money will be available to make existing stations accessible. There have been talks about banning pavement parking. But, so far, the problems persist.

The multi-million-pound renovation of Bristol Temple Meads will include improved accessibility – image: Network Rail

On the positive, Bristol’s new stations are designed to be fully accessible and improvements are being made to Temple Meads as we speak. But, as my transport campaigner friend pointed out, we’re still left with services that are not fully accessible because so many platforms along the route have step access only.

Plans to close ticket offices are only set to make things worse, with staff in ticket offices often the only people on hand to help those who need it.

I contacted metro mayor Dan Norris’ office for an update on funding to improve accessibility at stations – a responsibility shared by the Department for Transport (DfT), train operators and Network Rail.

I was told that Lawrence Hill and Parson Street stations are among some 300 nationally in the bidding to receive money for improving accessibility, with the results likely to be released in April 2024.

The West of England Combined Authority, headed by Norris, will also include station accessibility improvement works as part of the bid for a second round of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements programme. However, this won’t be confirmed until 2026 at the earliest.

Network Rail told me that work has been done with Bristol Sight Loss Council to make Temple Meads more accessible as part of its multi-million pound renovation. This will see it become one of the first to launch an audio guide for blind and partially sighted people.

I’m still waiting on an answer as to when we might expect to see work to improve accessibility at other stations in the region.

I appreciate these are all big infrastructure projects and there is no easy, quick fix. But people have been waiting for years while their lives are impacted. My own experience has just highlighted some of the issues that so many face but I’ve barely scratched the surface of the issue.

It’s time to take this more seriously and increase the urgency with which we address accessibility issues. Access to transport, high streets and services should be right for all, not a daily gauntlet.

One of the two platforms at Lawrence Hill station is only accessible via steep steps – photo: Ellie Pipe

Ellie Pipe is the Deputy Editor at Bristol24/7

Main photo: Ellie Pipe

Read next:

• Lawrence Hill station one step closer to becoming step free 
• Work begins on new eastern entrance to Temple Meads
• Can Bristol urban plan its way to accessibility? 

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