It’s time for a clear, funded, inclusive public transport

Delivering accessible transport should not be an impossible journey, writes Victoria Oliver of Bolt Burdon Kemp

I travelled from London to Liverpool recently by train to see a client with a spinal cord injury. Travelling up was fine; travelling back down was not.

My one train from Liverpool to London turned into three and as I was crammed into train number two I was reflecting on how impossible that journey would have been with someone with accessibility needs. 

Because the reality is that for people with accessibility needs, travel on public transport is a challenge when everything is running well, let alone dealing with last minute platform changes and trains being rerouted to random train stations.

The inaccessibility of public transport in the UK is well documented and researched: 

• The Motability Foundation’s March 2022 report, The Transport Accessibility Gap, revealed that disabled people make 38% fewer trips than non-disabled individuals
• Research by NCAT in 2024 adds found that 92% of disabled respondents reported at least one barrier to using public transport. These ranged from inaccessible stations and vehicles to unreliable step-free access and insufficient staff support.
• In 2025 the House of Commons Transport Committee published data identifying that 35% of respondents decided not to make a journey more than once a week because they knew it will be too complicated, too unsafe or things are likely to go wrong.

This is not news to us at Bolt Burdon Kemp who, through our work with life changing injuries see first-hand the impact the lack of accessible transport has on disabled people and their families.

I’ve heard so many stories of people turning up to find the lift at the station is broken; the assistance they booked didn’t turn up; the wheelchair accessible space is full of suitcases.

Several years ago we ran a campaign to spotlight how inaccessible the London Underground was for wheelchair users by challenging 5 wheelchair users to commute 5 popular routes alongside 5 non-disabled participants and we compared their times. 

The results were unsurprising which was that in total the wheelchair users took 3 hours and 5 minutes to complete all five journeys while the non-disabled passengers took 1 hour 30 minutes. Individually the biggest discrepancy was for a journey from Wembley Park to Westminster which took 50 minutes longer for the wheelchair user. Imagine if that was your commute every day. 

Whilst the London Underground is only a small percentage of the UK’s public transport, London is the UK’s largest city accounting for roughly 12-15% of the total UK population; if we can’t get accessibility right in our biggest city, what hope do those living in more rural locations have.  

And it is important, because a lack of accessible public transport can have a huge impact on someone’s quality of life at a very basic level. It can prevent someone working; it can prevent them from studying; from exercising; from socialising; from going on holiday. A lack of accessible transport can result in people becoming isolated and it can put a huge strain on someone’s mental and physical health. 

The answer to this is not easy. In our Bolt Burdon Kemp 2025 Manifesto we set out the following suggestions: 

• Greater investment in accessible infrastructure. This means designing and upgrading transport networks with accessibility built in from the start, including reliable step-free routes, accessible station layouts, dependable lifts and ramps, and vehicles that meet the needs of all passengers.
• Stronger enforcement and accountability because current rights under the Equality Act 2010 are not consistently upheld.
• A clear, funded, inclusive transport strategy with specific targets and deadlines that applies to the whole country not just major cities and transport links. This should include full accessibility across the rail network and mandatory disability awareness training for all frontline transport staff.

Additionally I would argue that, as a society, we need to change our mind set that this is someone else’s problem; that it doesn’t affect enough people; that there are good reasons not to prioritise accessibility.

If this isn’t a problem that is affecting you or those close to you then you are very lucky but it is not a position that you should take for granted. We are all ageing; disability is in all our futures;  this is not a ‘them’ problem it’s an ‘all of us problem and we need to commit to change now.  

Victoria Oliver is a partner and head of the Spinal Injury Team at law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp