There are many people who would like to use Earlsfield railway station, but cannot due to problems with limited mobility. As you will have read in my Earlsfield Station Campaign section, many elderly people, people with disabilities or parents with buggies struggle on a daily basis to travel around London.

My campaign...

The problems at Earlsfield Station are very important to me and they have raised serious questions about how many stations around the UK have full access to platforms for passengers with limited mobility. I have therefore tabled an Early Day Motion which raises the issue of disabled access to railway stations. This will hopefully lead to a full debate on the issue in parliament. I have already got over 140 other MPs willing to support my campaign and I am proud that I can represent my constituency in this way.

Following this meeting and my EDM I have been meeting with people interested in my campaign including UNITE, the largest occupational pensioner organisation in the UK, the Disability Rights Commission, Network Rail and other train operating companies. The Director of the DRC was very supportive. He recently showed his support by writing to every MP asking them to sign my EDM to put pressure on the TOCs to start taking disability rights seriously.

Following this support I realised that there was not enough joined up thinking between all those who truly wanted to see improvements in our railways. So I recently chaired a meeting with 13 different organisations including from the Disability Rights Commission, South West Trains, Disability Action, Help the Aged, Home Start UK and others. By working with these organisations we can all work out how best to secure better facilities for Earlsfield station and other UK stations. Following this meeting there is now a coalition group set up to examine and decide on best ways to move on these issues.