The government has pledged to improve disability access on the railways after Paralympic great, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, was forced to “crawl off” a train at London’s King’s Cross station.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy blamed the previous Conservative government and told Sky News: “This is going to change.”
Speaking at the Paris Paralympics, where Great Britain reached a half-century of medals on Monday, Ms Nandy said the legacy of the team’s success “won’t just be measured in medals, it will be measured in the opportunities”.
The experience of 11-time Paralympic champion Baroness Tanni while on her journey to Paris underscored the investment needed beyond sport to improve the lives of those with disabilities.
The Welsh wheelchair racer used a series of social media posts to reveal there was no passenger assistance to greet her as the LNER train from Leeds got into London.
The train arrived at King’s Cross just after 10pm, and after waiting for about 16 minutes, Baroness Tanni said she “decided to crawl off”.
Ms Nandy said: “Transport accessibility is something that’s always been incredibly important to me and is very, very important to our new government.
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“We’ve campaigned for a long time to try to make sure that transport networks are far more accessible to people, and you’ll know that the experience of Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson recently is not unfamiliar to many people across the country.
“We’re absolutely determined that this is going to change. It’s something that our new transport secretary is determined to grip among many other things on her desk that were left as a legacy from the last government.”
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Labour promised to renationalise nearly all passenger railways within its first term.
In Paris, most stations on the Metro are still not fully accessible to people in wheelchairs, although buses and trams now are as part of the Paralympics investment.
Ms Nandy said: “There’s always more that we can and should be doing. And it’s something that as a government, we’re determined to achieve in the UK as well.”
Read more:
All you need to know about the Paralympics
Opening ceremony in pictures
Record-breaking gold medal haul for ParalympicsGB
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ParalympicsGB is second in the medal table five days into Paris 2024 with Stephen McGuire’s gold in the men’s boccia BC4 – allowing the team to hit the 50-medal mark on Monday.
It coincided with ParalympicsGB calling on the government to guarantee equal access to PE and school sports, saying only 25% of disabled children take part in sport at school compared to 41% of non-disabled children.
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Ms Nandy said: “We’re really determined that the legacy of this Paralympics won’t just be measured in medals, it will be measured in the opportunities available to young people, regardless of whether they have a disability, regardless of their background or their circumstances in every part of the country.
“And that’s why I’m up here learning about the Equal Play campaign… to make sure that we open up those opportunities to a whole generation of young people.”
