Recent plans announced by the UK Government will see new publicly-run trains aim to feature level boarding as a standard feature going forward.
Announced on 28 September 2026, the Government has stated that Great British Railways (GBR) will seek to make unassisted level boarding between the train and platform a ‘baseline expectation’ for all new trains wherever possible in a bid to improve accessibility across the country’s rail network.
The Government will invest 280 million GBP in step-free access through the Access for All programme, with 30 schemes now currently underway across England, Scotland and Wales.
This aims to build on last year’s Roadmap to an Accessible Railway, which set out improvements to day-to-day travel for passengers in need of assistance ahead of GBR’s establishment, as well as set an expectation that any and all new trains are designed to reduce barriers between train carriages and standard Network Rail platforms.
The announcement comes following the Government’s previously stated plans earlier this week that it would begin investigating the potential for new trains to be publicly-owned rather than leased. Both announcements form part of the new Rolling Stock and Infrastructure plan, which will see GBR oversee decisions on trains, track, depots and maintenance as part of the government’s wider drive to put essential services back in public control.
Thus far, the Government has claimed that this initiative is not expected to add any significant costs towards new trains, as they will be designed to provide unassisted level boarding at standard Network Rail platform heights from the outset, as seen on Greater Anglia and Merseyrail recently in the new GBR trains being built by Alstom for the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
