Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North, Labour)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether his Department has made a recent assessment of levels of (a) safety and (b) accessibility at Finsbury Park station; and whether his Department has made a recent estimate of passenger numbers at that station.

Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

Annual safety assessment on the railway network is a function of Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings as set out by the Railway and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS) and is overseen by the Office of Rail Regulation, not the Department for Transport.

Reporting and estimating of annual passenger numbers at stations is also a function of the Office of Rail Regulation. However the Department is aware that approximately 5.2 million passenger entries/exits, and 2.4 million interchanges, were estimated at Finsbury Park for the 2007-08 period.

The accessibility of Finsbury Park station was assessed by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) as part of the consultation strategy behind the Railways for All programme in 2005. The SRA concluded that the station did not meet current standards for accessibility and recommended that level access routes be provided to platforms serving passenger trains. Finsbury Park has since been targeted for investment under the Department's Access for All programme towards achieving this, but these plans have been delayed by the decision of London Underground Ltd. to postpone the provision of step free access to underground trains.