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News Release 29th August 2003DISABLED IGNORED AT TRENT VALLEYMichael Fabricant has expressed his "anger" at the Strategic Rail Authority's decision to abandon plans to give disabled access to Lichfield Trent Valley Railway Station and says "This is a direct consequence of the botched decision to renationalise Railtrack a couple of years back. "I had been assured by the SRA that the upgrade of Lichfield Trent Valley Railway station was a high priority. At present disabled people can only access the north direction of the West Coast Main line. If they wish to travel to London or take the cross city line, they must climb a tall flight of steps which is difficult enough anyway for able-bodied people with luggage." says Michael Fabricant. "While I am pleased that the campaign to restore the Lichfield City station has met with success, this will be of little comfort to commuters using the West Coast Main line. Given all the disruption which will soon be felt by residents of Armitage with Handsacre and at Whittington when the line is widened to accommodate four tracks, I would have thought that the local station on that line would not have had its upgrade plans axed". The Strategic Rail Authority originally planned to upgrade 65 stations, including Lichfield Trent Valley, and this has been cut to three because of lack of funds. Michael adds: "This all goes back a couple of years to the botched decision by the Government to re-nationalise Railtrack and when discredited Stephen Byers and John Prescott were forced to pay off all the shareholders of Railtrack a percentage of their holdings. This cost billions from reserves which were earmarked to upgrade our rail service. Rail experts are now saying that there were sufficient reserves in Railtrack at the time and the company should have been left to get on with its job without political interference. Lichfield and stations up and down the midlands are now beginning to pay the price". |
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