Accessible Travel Update: Level Boarding Coming Soon

For many disabled people, the hardest part of a train journey isn't the train. It's the few centimetres, or sometimes the big step, between the carriage door and the platform. The UK government recently announced it wants to close that gap for good on new, more accessible trains. This is welcome news for many disabled passengers: here's what you need to know.

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What the government has promised about level boarding

The Department for Transport says new trains will aim to have unassisted level boarding between train and platform as standard. Great British Railways (GBR) will make it a baseline expectation for new trains "wherever possible", designed to work with standard Network Rail platform heights from the outset.

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The announcement also points to £280 million of Access for All funding for step-free access, with more than 30 schemes under way across England, Scotland and Wales, and it builds on last year's Roadmap to an Accessible Railway. Ministers say the change should not add significant cost in most cases.

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What disabled passengers are saying about accessible rail travel

The frustrations behind this announcement are well documented. Government-commissioned research published in 2025 found disabled passengers describing a "carriage space lottery" for wheelchair spaces, which are often taken by luggage or pushchairs. Some said staff didn't turn up with a ramp, or told them they were too late to board. Many felt that fewer staff and higher fares had made rail less accessible since the pandemic.

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The same research found Passenger Assist is a lifeline when it works, but many passengers with a disability reported it being under-resourced, with frequent failures. In one example, a passenger was told staff were expecting them, only for no one to arrive with the ramp, leaving them stuck on the train.

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Level boarding tackles the root of many of these problems: if you don't need a ramp, you don't need to wait for someone to fetch it.

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What our community says about train accessibility

One of our Facebook group members said:

"It would help me a lot. I haven’t used the train for around 4 years"

Another commented that the scheme is already working well in other countries:

"I've just come back from Italy and every train station bar one was level platforms, it was fantastic"

On the other hand, others were skeptical that the proposals would come to fruition, or expressed concerns about the cost of tickets being more prohibitive than physical access. Disabled campaigners have also pointed to the lack of commitment in law to the proposals, and to the remaining barriers to railway accessibility, including step-free access to platforms. Learn more about the Campaign for Level Boarding.

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About the National Disability & Carers Card Scheme‍

The National Disability & Carers Card scheme was set up in 2019 by carers to make everyday life and access easier for people with disabilities and those who care for them. The scheme supports 300,000 card holders and provides easy-to-carry visual identification that helps people avoid repeatedly explaining their disability or caring role. The National Disability Card is accepted as proof of disability at 600+ venues across the UK and abroad. If you're looking for ways to communicate your access needs, consider applying for your card today.