Feature MARGARET HICKISH
The Equality Act has now replaced the DDA and this contains a strong emphasis on equal treatment for everyone including older, younger and disabled people.
departure time yet the train is seldom in the station until 5 - 10 minutes before travel.
On arrival at the meeting point, I am often ignored or told to wait for their booked assistance, despite having been told to arrive 30 minutes early. I often feel that there is a widely held view that disabled peoples time is unimportant.
In my experience the booked assistance arrives very close to train departure time causing already stressed disabled people to make a last minute dash to the platform.
People delivering boarding assistance are often uncomfortable in helping me and do not meet my eye or even speak to me until I have boarded the train.
Guided to the correct platform by an assistance team member via the accessible route, the staff member puts out a ramp to allow me to get onto the train. All ramps are the same length despite some trains being much higher and the ramp becoming much steeper. These ramps are often much steeper than would be considered accessible in other environments.
On the train, an area is set aside as a wheelchair user space; this space is often difficult to access for people who have difficulty manoeuvring.
On the train a notice informs passengers to keep the access area free from luggage. However, the sign is small and if a wheelchair user points it out they often receive abuse as there is not sufficient luggage space.
However, disabled passengers now receive email confirmations of bookings made by telephone. ATOC has led the introduction of the new ‘Passenger Assist’ process, and TOCs now use this booking system which takes advantage of technology to ensure accurate information about assistance bookings are recorded. The system also makes it quicker to book repeated journeys and it allows performance monitoring of train companies.
During my travels I have found that in many stations the taxi drop-off, assistance meeting point and the ticket office or machine are at opposite ends of a station and so as a disabled person I have to factor in the time to get through crowds of people with luggage, often moving in the opposite direction, to collect my ticket and then report to the assistance meeting point.
Disabled travellers like me are told they must be at the meeting point 30 minutes before the
On my usual train in standard class, there is no automatic access to refreshments, despite my travelling after work on a Friday, as there is seldom a trolley service. With no access to even water, it is essential I buy food and drink before boarding the train adding to the time I have to allow before my train departs.
This of course may be a good thing as despite the wheelchair space being adjacent to the toilet I have twice not been informed before departure that the accessible toilet was out of order. On one unforgettable journey some time ago, I was offered free refreshments to help make up for this!
Disembarking is equally stressful for disabled people. Arriving after a long journey, I sometimes wait for 15 - 20 minutes for assistance to arrive. I was once left on a train in Paddington station, ignored by cleaning staff, and after the power was switched off my only option was to call 999.
Ask any disabled person and they will tell you that there are a number of improvements that could and should be made to deliver a more effective accessible rail passenger service.
Ideas for Further Improvements
The solutions described below are technology or process driven but perhaps what is most important is that staff understand that disabled people need to access transport to travel for work and leisure and that they often have very busy lives.
Solutions already possible include:
• Tickets being purchased and displayed on mobile phones, in a similar way as the airlines now do with boarding cards.
• Personal wayfinding that allows everyone to move through stations with confidence. Using a similar technology to SatNav there are systems capable of directing a person through a building such as a station using routes suitable for their individual needs, which can be delivered in an audio or text format.
• Real time station and train accessibility information available on mobile devices. Indicating where the accessible doors will be on a train on a platform could assist both train operators and increase the confidence of disabled travellers.
• Automatic ramps where a wheelchair user simply uses a button on the train from the platform or onboard the train and the ramp automatically deploys, as in Germany for example. This removes the need for many people to book assistance at unstaffed stations.
• Platform lifts that will only deploy when there is a train at the platform.
• Flexible wheelchair space design on trains allowing appropriate space and door widths for the increasing size of powered wheelchairs.
• A mobile ordering system for food and drink on board to allow people who cannot get to the onboard shop offering an effective service.
• Methods to allow blind and visually impaired passengers and others who cannot leave the train unassisted to have confirmation that their booked assistance will be at the destination station before they disembark their train.
• A central communication number to report their essential assistance has not arrived.
The government and society expect disabled people who can work to do so. The public see disabled people travelling and believe they have equal access to travel by train but is this really true?
RailCONNECT 45
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