Local Lib Dem campaigners collected thousands of signatures to improve Raynes Park and Motspur Park station accessibility.

Local LibDems have been campaigning for more than than a year to make Raynes Park and Motspur Park stations “step free” and more accessible. These are both busy rail stations with more than 4 million people using Raynes Park each year.

Like other stations in the area, such as Earlsfield and New Malden, we feel that a lift should now be provided to improve access for people with disabilities, the elderly, parents with children in buggies as well travellers with luggage and cycles. Such an improvement would help thousands of journeys – and local residents agree. Thousands of people signed our petition calling for this.

Last year, we delivered the first tranch of the petition to Network Rail, Southwest Trains and the Department for Transport (DfT) who all have a role in making these improvements. The DfT has responded to our petition this week, indicating that in terms of choosing stations to improve, Raynes Park and Motspur Park stations were not sufficiently prioritised by the train operator and thus not allocated government funding this time.

Our campaign is not over, however, and with your support we want to ensure that these local stations given the government and industry priority we believe they deserve. The rail industry and DfT now realises the strength of local feeling to improve accessibility at Raynes Park and Motspur Park stations and the local Lib Dem Focus Team will continue to do what we can to see these improvements made as soon as possible.