Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has recently (a) sought and (b) received representations on the effect on disabled passengers of de-staffing railway stations.

With growing passenger numbers, the Department wants to see more not fewer staff on the railway. Train operating company employees have increased by 20% from 49,000 to 59,000 between 2010-11 and 2017-18.

We believe that train operators themselves are best placed to determine how staff are deployed to best to meet the needs of their passengers. We regularly engage with a range of stakeholders such as the Rail Delivery Group who is the custodian of the Passenger Assist reservation scheme to discuss issues that will make the rail network more accessible.