Announcing Better Connected: a Strategy for Integrated Transport, the Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, Secretary of State for Transport has declared:-

"We need to consider transport through a new lens; rather than a traditional approach to transport which thinks in terms of buses, cars or trains, we must instead prioritise how people experience the transport network as a whole, and the transformative change we want everyone to see and feel when using transport."

Given the stark reality of the announcement in January 2026 by Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy about stations where no Access for All improvements will be progressing at this point of time, we will see what we will see....

Meanwhile late March 2026 marked the 63rd anniversary of the Beeching Report (27 March 1963), which led to the closure of almost 2,500 stations. On the 60th anniversary, Silviya Barrett of the Campaign for Better Transport said:

“Sixty years after the Beeching report, road traffic is blighting communities and transport emits more greenhouse gases than any other sector. We need to reverse the cuts and expand the rail network, to make transport fit for the next 60 years.”

It's well worth revisiting what the Campaign for Better Transport wrote in 2023 - it's not just of academic interest and there is a very useful link to the CBT's  The case for expanding the rail network