I REALLY must comment on recent articles that have appeared in the Bolton Evening News concerning disabled access at Blackrod railway station, particularly those of Ron Shambley and Cllr Guy Harkin on behalf of the PTA.

Mr Shambley says he recently visited the station and "could not have spent £5,000 on any solution if I tried". Stated solutions include installing lifts on either side of an overhead walkway to get from one platform to another. If anyone can put us in touch with a construction company that can install two brand new lifts from scratch, having regard to all the requirements of disability and Health & Safety legislation, for just £5,000 -- contact us as a matter of urgency, because we do not believe it can be done.

Another suggested solution is to place a wooden boardwalk across the line. Such crossings already exist throughout the rail system. They are called barrow crossings and hark back to the good old days when passengers travelled with large amounts of luggage, and station porters transported their bags and other goods between the platforms on barrows. Far from putting in new barrow crossings, the rail industry is under pressure from the Health & Safety Executive to remove them because of their poor safety record -- there have been both "near misses" and fatalities involving such crossings.

So far as Cllr Harkin is concerned, we have no idea where his figure of £100,000 comes from. We did exactly what the Passenger Transport Executive asked us to do ie provide it with a cost for the detailed design, build and implementation of access ramps to both platforms and the removal of the footbridge between the platforms. The reality is that it would cost several times this figure to carry out the work we were asked to cost.

As for Cllr Harkin saying that the transport authority "has no powers to employ other contractors to do the work, or insist that a lower price is charged" -- that simply is not true. Network Rail would be more than happy to work with any approved contractor that the PTE wanted to use as long as they can meet the same stringent rules and regulations within which we have to work.

John Pengelly

Estates Manager

Network Rail North West