Disable Access in South Wales Region  

  21 September 2011  

Disable access in Newport, Chepstow, Abergavenny & Pontypool. 

William Graham (Conservative AM for South Wales East) speaking in the Assembly debate on the accessibility of the transport network for disabled people called for “access to be an integral design feature of our transport network”. 

“There are 30 railway stations in South Wales East;  

•24 of these are unmanned

•13 are accessed by ramps with a gradient steeper than 1:12

• Only 3 have accessible lavatory facilities.

I appreciate that many access issues arise from the age of our stations; however, form August 2007 until September 2010 wheelchair access to the Assembly Government funded Platform 4 at Newport Station was via a taxi arranged by station staff”. 

“It is an alarming statistic that 23% of disabled people have had to turn down a job due to a lack of accessible transport”.  

“Public transport is only truly ‘public’ if it is available to everyone”. 

“If information about accessibility is not readily available, then accessible services become inaccessible”.