Information on railway stations fully accessible to persons with disabilities: EIR release

• The number of stations that are fully accessible to persons with disabilities.
• The number of passengers who use the station each year.
• The estimated cost of upgrading each station to provide full disability access.

Response

As previously advised the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. 

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

1. The number of railway stations that are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. 

Attached below is a spreadsheet which outlines accessibility information at each of the 359 stations in Scotland.

2. The number of passengers who use the station each year. 

The information you have requested on stations usage is available from the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) and can be obtained from following the links below. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.  If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me and I will send you a paper copy.

Data on total footfall for stations in Scotland in 2016/17 (most recent data available) can be located at this weblink:

http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0012/26130/estimates-of-station-usage-2016-17.xlsx 

These data are provided in spreadsheet format; data specific to Scotland can be located by ‘filtering’ the data on the “Estimates of station usage” table, by region (column D).

Data on total footfall for stations in Scotland for previous years can be located at this weblink:

http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/station-usage-estimates

3. The estimated cost of upgrading each station to provide full disability access. 

In relation to your request above, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.  Rail accessibility remains a reserved matter under the devolution of rail powers to SG, and thus funding for accessibility improvements remains the responsibility of the UK Department for Transport. Though the Scottish Government does add to this funding where it is able to do so to accelerate accessibility improvements. However, on average schemes delivered in Scotland to date which provide standard two lifts and a footbridge, cost circa £3 million.  

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the estimated cost of upgrading each station to provide full disability access clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.