Brentwood train passengers still campaigning for station lift

Brentwood Access Group has been campaigning for better disability access at the railway station since 2010

People with disabilities say they still cannot catch a train from their local Essex station to London because a lift has not been installed.

The Brentwood Access Group (BAG) first started campaigning for better access at the town railway station in 2010.

Lifts were installed on platforms 1-3 as part of the Elizabeth line Tube network, but not on platform four.

Transport for London (TfL) said there were "technical challenges" and said it had applied for funding for a new lift.

BAG chairman Jim Hoare relied on a mobility scooter and said he wanted to take his grandchildren on the train to the capital for a day out.

Jim Hoare said the Elizabeth line sign was "incorrect"

"I feel excluded from it all, it's so disappointing," said BAG chairman Jim Hoare.

"We are like children with our noses squished against a sweet shop window, but we just can't get in - I am frustrated."

Mr Hoare also said a TfL sign, directing people to platform four, was "misleading" because an image of a wheelchair was painted on.

Passengers can take Elizabeth Line trains from platform three to London, but Mr Hoare said he and others would face inevitable difficulties once they returned to Brentwood railway station via platform four.

Platform four has never had a lift.

Jim Hoare, pictured with fellow Brentwood Access Group campaigners, said he wanted to take his grandchildren to London

Mr Hoare's online petition, calling for a working lift at platform four, has received more than 1,500 signatures.

Howard Smith, the director of the Elizabeth Line at TfL, said there were "technical challenges with installing a lift to platform four".

He said TfL applied for government funding in 2018 but was not selected, and that it was awaiting to find out having applied again in September 2022.