A passenger group focused on improving services for commuters has vowed to fight for better access at Aldershot railway station.

Members of Alton Line Users Association (ALUA) plan to lobby the Department for Transport (DfT) to include the town’s railway station in its £370million Access For All programme, which looks to improve access for rail users at 130 stations across the country.

Farnborough Main and Fleet railway stations are the two stations in the Mail area in line for improvements to be delivered between 2009 and 2011 as part of DfT’s ten-year programme.

However, Aldershot has been left off the list despite only one of the three platforms being immediately accessible to people in wheelchairs.

Step free access to platform two and three is only available when passengers are accompanied by staff over a barrow crossing, for which they are asked to allow at least 15 minutes for transfer.

Passengers who need a ramp to access trains are asked to book in with National Rail via telephone at least 24 hours in advance of when they intend to travel.

ALUA member Mike Roberts, who is also Rushmoor’s ward councillor for Heron Wood, said Aldershot railway station should be included in the investment programme as one of the key stops along the Alton to London Waterloo route.

He told the Mail he plans to write to DfT signed by ALUA chairman Peter Monk.

For more on this story see this week’s Aldershot Mail out on Tuesday, November 25.”