Protest Held Over Accessibility At Brentford Station

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Campaigners say no guard means no access for those needing ramp

Campaigners at Brentford Station

Disability campaigners demonstrated this Wednesday (18 April) at Brentford station against plans to end the requirement to have a guard on all South Western Railway trains which they say will affect disabled access.

The demonstrators were joined by local MP Ruth Cadbury and councillors Mel Collins, Corinna Smart and Guy Lambert. Sian Vasey leads the local campaign and was supported by Transport for All with their Rail Access Now! campaign.

They then travelled up to London to join a bigger protest at Waterloo station as can be seen above in London Live's news report.

The Rail Union RMT has been campaigning to Keep the Guard on The Train for two years, starting with Southern Railway and the dispute encompasses Northern, Merseyrail, Greater Anglia as well as South Western Railway.

Brentford Station is one of the few step-free stations in West London.  It is also unstaffed, so the guard currently gets out of the train, unlocks the ramp located on the platform, or gets the one from inside the train and positions it for wheelchair access. The decision from South Western Railways to allow trains to run without a guard if one is not available will mean that wheelchair users would not be able to board that train.

Find Save Access at Brentford Station on Facebook.

London Live and ITV also covered the protest.

April 20, 2018