MP’s frustration continues as still no UK Govt decision on improving access at Insch station

Gordon MP Richard Thomson has expressed his frustration that there is still no decision from the UK Government’s Department for Transport on improving access at Insch Station.

While rail in Scotland has largely been devolved, accessibility at railway stations remains within the remit of the UK Department for Transport.

A bid for funding has been made for Access for All funding to improve the situation at Insch, which has no level access to one of its platforms.

In a letter to Mr Thomson, the UK Minister of State for Transport states that his Department is still “assessing over 300 nominations for Access for All funding beyond 2024, including a nomination for Insch station”, suggesting that the timescale has been pushed even further back to next year.

Commenting, Richard Thomson MP said: “The painfully slow progress in dealing with the funding to improve accessibility at Insch Station is not acceptable, and now the UK Minister for Transport even seems to be suggesting this is now going to slip further behind into 2025.

“I submitted a letter back in 2022 as part of the process with my strong support for Insch Station to benefit from funding from the Access for All fund to address the poor accessibility there and which is an issue for less-able passengers.

“The process of arriving at conclusions as to which stations were to benefit from funding to improve access was supposed to have been concluded by the UK Government’s Department for Transport by the end of March last year. The Minister advised me in May 2023 that an announcement would be made before the end of year so this delay is unacceptable.

“I’ll continue to advocate for Insch Station to get funding so that all rail users can benefit from level access to both platforms.”

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.