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Weak, late, and inaccessible

Transport for All has branded the Government's response to the Transport Committee investigation into accessibility as weak, late, and inaccessible.

Three disabled people outside railway arches. The first is a black male powerchair user with a limb difference. The second is a white woman with her hand on her hip. the last is a Southeast Asian male wheelchair user. They are all gazing firmly and determinedly into the camera.

In March 2025 the Transport Committee published Access Denied – a report detailing the findings of their investigation into accessibility and public transport in the UK.

Transport for All were one of many charities and disabled experts who spoke to the Committee during the evidence gathering. We shared our disabled members experience from over 40 years of campaigning for accessible transport, and travelling as disabled people.

The resulting report detailed the long-standing litany of accessibility failures familiar to disabled passengers, including:

  • Systemic failures and a lack of enforcement of legal duties
  • Fragmented complaints processes, placing a burden on individual disabled people to fight for redress
  • A widespread culture across the transport sector that treats accessibility as optional rather than a legal obligation.

The Government response to the report, published earlier this week, fails to address these key issues and others. We regard it as a weak response that lacks commitment, a response that is an overdue late nod to a longstanding issue, and a response that perpetuates inaccessibility.

Weak

The Transport Committee’s report called for an assessment of whether a single central regulator would best protect and enforce accessibility for all passengers, across all forms of transport.

Instead, the Government proposes a piecemeal approach of unenforceable charters and internal letters. This will leave a spiderweb of legal loopholes, and allow transport providers to continue failing disabled people.

Late

The Transport Committee’s report demanded urgent action, reflecting years of campaigning from disabled people and transport justice charities. The Government’s response repeatedly avoids setting clear deadline for action, and glosses over time frames.

At a time when our community is facing deep cuts to the social security systems that help us survive, the response says that fiscal issues must be considered in our country’s journey towards making a transport system that everyone can use.

Inaccessible

To add a final insult, many disabled people will remain barred from raising complaints when transport fails them.

The Transport Committee report called for accessible complaints processes that are open to everyone, and an end to paper-only systems that exclude many disabled people.

The Government’s response ignores this accessibility requirement completely, silencing parts of our community.

In short, we regard this response as weak, late and inaccessible – much like the current state of UK public transport.

This must change. As the report notes – our society must be built to enable everyone to live full, vibrant, meaningful, autonomous lives.

A man standing in front of a painted brick wall smiling at the camera. He is holding a cane and is wearing glasses, a black jacket and a grey t-shirt. A man standing in front of a painted brick wall smiling at the camera. He is holding a cane and is wearing glasses, a black jacket and a grey t-shirt.

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