Back to Number 10!
As you may remember we visited number 10 Downing Street in February this year to hand in a petition to the Prime Minister against the proposed changes to train travel.
We are hugely concerned about the impact these proposed changes will have on our members to be able to travel independently and safely on trains.
We have been campaigning:
1: For all ticket offices to remain open and all staffed stations to remain staffed at all times with safe level of staffing.
2: For all trains to have guards (also known as train managers or conductors) at all times.
3: For all stations to become staffed at all times with safe level of staffing.
Since we visited in February a consultation on the proposed changes was launched in July 2023. This was one of the most inaccessible and confusing consultations we have ever seen.
The accessible versions of the consultation, easy read, large print, audio and Braille were not available at the start of the consultation which means those who require these versions would have less time to respond than everyone else.
The consultation was extended due to the feedback received from organisations and individuals on the inaccessibility of the consultation. The revised date of the closure of the consultation was Friday 1st September.
The National Federation of the Blind UK organised another petition to be delivered to the Prime Minister on 31st August, the day before the closure of the consultation. As before, we were in full support and joined them in handing in a letter explaining our concerns.
Jonathan, Anne and Jane all made the visit to the door of number 10 and handed in the petition and letter.
We encouraged the press to cover our story and concerns. Jane and Anne were on ITV London on Thursday evening. Nikki and Jonathan spoke on BBC Radio Surrey on Friday morning and Anna (at very short notice) popped to her local train station to speak to National BBC TV.
We’re pleased to hear today that there has been such a big response to the consultation that they have had to extend the amount of time to analyse the responses.
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about the response.
Finally, a huge thank you to all of our wonderful members and staff that have supported this campaign. You are all amazing!
