Station Lifts
From Susan Quick
Monday, 1 May 2017
Nicola Wright of Network Rail is meeting at the station on Monday May 15 2.30 p.m.
We are getting lifts at the station! Nicola Wright of Network Rail is coming to Hebden Bridge station @ 2.30 pm on Monday 15th May to meet everyone concerned with improving station access. Please come, we need everyone to tell her what issues need resolving.
The plan is to reinstate the old lifts serving the subway which were closed in the 1980s so we can get from Platform 2 to Platform 1; bringing them up-to-date to conform to present-day legislation.
Funded by the Department for Transport Access for All "The project will provide step-free access from a designated drop-off/pick-up point for passengers at the station across to all platforms. The term step free is a term is a route free from steep gradients and usually includes the provision of passenger lifts.
The project will also include improvements to lighting, CCTV coverage and signage where appropriate along the accessible route. The purpose of the project is to make the station easier to use for all passengers, in particular wheelchair users, pushchairs users and those travelling with heavy luggage."
However there are no plans to improve access from the road; passengers are expected to arrive by bus or car. Nor do they plan to lower the booking office window, saying it is listed! Will passengers waiting for the lift impede access to the cafe?
Please come along; have your say! If coming by taxi please get a receipt so I can refund the cost.
Susan Quick, Hebden Bridge Disability Access Forum
From Myra James
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
I am pleased to hear there us to be a meeting on site with Network Rail about the accessibility imorovements. It should help us to get a clearer idea of what is planned and provide us with an opportunity to make sure that all concerns are being addressed.
Regarding lowering of the booking office counter, I believe it has previously been stated that sale of tickets to a wheelchair user could take place outside the booking office so there should be need to damage this feature of our listed station.
From Susan Quick
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
Another way to buy tickets is the machine on the platform but it doesn't sell local discount tickets for those of us who have bus passes. It only sells the national disabled discount tickets, for which you have to have a pass costing £20 p.a.
From Myra James
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
The ticket machine on the platform does now sell WY concession tickets, so bus pass holders can buy half price tickets there. It didn't when first installed though.
From Kez Armitage
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Thank goodness this project is finally going ahead!
Sadly, I'm not around for the meeting. My only concern is the appearance of the two lift shafts. Network Rail's preferred option is for a wood cladding 'effect' (heaven knows what the 'effect' means!). One of the other options is for stone. Surely, given the solidity of the existing building, and in deference to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, who built the station with a confidence and a permanence that wood (or a 'wood effect') could never hope to emulate, we ought to be pressing for this.
On a more mundane level, the problem with wood is that it doesn't take long for it to look tatty, and so it will need ongoing maintenance (creosote, Cuprinol or Ronseal), whereas stone will be good for the next 150 years or so (although I do note that the application says 'stone clad effect')
It's all here, if you care to look.
From Susan Quick
Sunday, 7 May 2017
I think we would all agreed that personal dignity is worth more than preserving a listed counter. It's history doesn't shout!
From David Tut
Monday, 8 May 2017
Why not make the lifts back to their original working order and in doing so great for the stations history and incoaperating the use for all passengers disabled etc.
From Susan Quick
Monday, 8 May 2017
Lowering the booking office window would give the wheelchair user equal access. Yes the booking office staff might well come out to serve the disabled client, but how does someone in a wheelchair reach the card machine to pay for his/her ticket? Will the booking office clerk be able to unplug it and carry it to the wheelchair user? What if there's a queue and the wheelchair user's train will be here in 5 minutes; will he/she have to wait until all the other people have been served? At rush-hour will security let him/her onto the platform without a ticket, to buy on the train?
From Ruth F
Thursday, 11 May 2017
While I don't want to in any way impede access to wheelchair users, I would point out that lowered counters can be problematic to people with other kinds of disabilities, for example I have chronic back and joint pain. So some sort of choice might be better than a one size fits all approach.
I have a lot of trouble with things like lower cash machine facilities making my access difficult in certain places (not in HB but it does happen).
Choices, perhaps a buzzer system so a wheelchair user can alert the ticket office staff they are there, that kind of thing? Perhaps instead of only considering wheelchair access as paramount.
From Susan Quick
Monday, 15 May 2017
Nicola Wilding of Network Rail has had to cancel her visit scheduled for Monday 15 May 2.30 because her daughter is ill. Will reshedule.
From Susan Quick
Thursday, 25 May 2017
Nicola Wright of Network Rail's visit to consult re proposed lifts is re-scheduled for 1pm Monday 12 June. See you there!
The lift access proposals can be viewed on Calderdale's planning web. However the application makes no mention of resurfacing the area in front of the station entrance which is current very difficult to walk across, impossible to wheel across. In a recent meeting with Nicola Wright of Network Rail we discussed the need for resurfacing, though no formal agreement was made. This needs to be brought to her attention when she comes to consult at the station at 1pm on Monday 12 June.
We should also discuss wheelchair access to the booking office. I believe there is a second window which could potentially be lowered thus offering two alternatives and not impeding access for those of us who do not use a wheelchair.