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<p>I would like to assure the hon. Member that we are committed to improving accessibility
at railway stations. However, many stations date from a time when the needs of disabled
customers were simply not considered and at present only around 460 of our 2,500 stations
have step free access to every platform. We have therefore continued with the Access
for All programme, launched in 2006, which by 2019 will have provided step free access
at more than 200 stations and has already delivered smaller scale access improvements
at over 1200 stations.</p><p> </p><p>In 2013 we asked the industry to nominate stations
for the latest tranche of Access for All funding. 278 were put forward and we selected
68 of these to add to the programme. To ensure the best possible value for money,
these were chosen based on their annual footfall, weighted by the incidence of disability
in the area. We also took into account the priorities of the industry and other factors
such as the availability of third party funding. Around a third were also chosen to
ensure a fair geographical spread across the country.</p><p> </p><p>Bingham was not
among the 278 stations nominated.</p>
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