Access at Lichfield Trent Valley Station has been branded a “disgrace”.
Ian Jackson, secretary of the Lichfield Rail Promotion group, made his comments in a letter to the Lichfield Alliance.
Trent Valley has long been criticised because two of the three platforms do not have disabled access.
And now Mr Jackson,who is also standing in the forthcoming Staffordshire County Council elections, has warned that all involved parties need to work together.
“I agree that provision for access and car parking at this station is a disgrace,” he said. “While the County Council can push for improved facilities at this station, it is up to London Midland and Network Rail to resolve the problems.
“There is new funding being made available next year as part of the Access for All scheme, and we are all trying to ensure that some of this cash comes to Lichfield.
“The increased footfall at Trent Valley, as well as it’s growing importance as an interchange station and the fact that it is the nearest access point for the National Memorial Arboretum, all give some hope that we will succeed, although £100m does not go very far on railway infrastructure and the competition for these funds is fierce.”
Mr Jackson has also warned that the station’s parking provision will struggle to cope unless more is done.
The station currently has limited spaces, although a new car park off Old Burton Road will see the number of spaces doubled.
“This will improve the parking provision, but I suspect that further suppressed demand will mean that more will very soon be needed,” Mr Jackson said.
“There is a proposal to provide parking across the road on the old freight depot as part of the Streethay development, but this is in my view in the wrong place and the Streethay development itself has been thrown into question by HS2.
“The old GKN site would be far more appropriate, but the land owners seem to have an overly optimistic view of its value, despite that fact that the site has been empty for years.”
Ian Jackson is standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Staffordshire County Council in Lichfield City South. Other candidates standing are Colin Ball (Lab), Eileen Cope (UKIP), Terry Finn (Cons).
Its right the parking is an absolute disgrace at Lichfield Trent Valley and has been for some time. I booked a train at 7.07am and was unable to catch it as the car park was already overfull at 6.50am. As a result I ended up driving most of the way to London. Totally impractical.
Alex if that ever happens again drive to Atherstone. But watch the ticket machine , it tries to charge full price unless you reset it and click other ticket options.
Our Railways station in Atherstone was closed, derelict, then re opened, then we lost the foot bridge as it was declared unsafe. They made an emergency access through the undergrowth on what was then platform 2. Since then ( bearing in mind that Atherstone is a two platform station and had a passenger number in the region of one person leaving and one returning a day when re-opened) they swapped the platform numbers, fitted new shelters, new lighting, digital display boards, speaker systems, cctv, help point, ticket machine, new platform surfaces, new tactile strip, new platform edging, removed the bridge, built a new stair case down to the road, a new footpath as part of a ramp, a new car park and kiss and drop ( both car parks are free ) with lighting and more cctv, another help point, platform fencing, platform end gates, new rubbish bins, new signage. They’ve spent a staggering amount of money. Now there’s about 15 to 25 get on and the same getting off each train.
London midland know that good facilities get passenger numbers up. So don’t give up, there is hope. I know from experience that it is extremely difficult to get London Midland to listen. I’m not sure how the town council got them to listen but they did.