It was wonderful to join the opening of the new improved Hattersley rail station this week. Improvements include a new ticket office, and new waiting areas with seating and workspaces.

I’m pleased to see there is also a new accessible toilet (with baby changing, grab rails and an audio description for customers with visual impairments), which passengers can access via radar key, a train ticket QR code or 24 hour video link to Northern customer care.

Hattersley rail users deserve a good experience and I’m delighted to see this investment come good. A big thank you to Babs Allen and everyone at Friends of Hattersley Station for their campaigning and hard work to get us here.

I continue to push for works to make this and other local stations fully accessible. Hattersley has been agreed as the 16th priority for works of (9 fairly shocking) list of 55 inaccessible stations across GM, and alongside others I continue to lobby Government and TfGM to hurry up in resourcing and delivering these necessary improvements.