Level boarding issues

[Bletchleyite]

This week I came across a wheelchair user posting on Twitter suggesting that they actually don't like the level boarding provided by the FLIRTs and Thameslink, because there's too much of a step down and back up to the retracting ramp and it leaves too much of a gap, but staff are reluctant to use the still available "gap bridge" ramp because they've been told it's not needed as there's level boarding. Similarly "level boarding" on Thameslink at St Pancras appears to be a step up of a few centimetres and not level at all (I'm sure I recall up to 50mm is allowed?) She said she preferred high floor stock with a guard who could place the conventional pegged ramp.

Clearly this is unsatisfactory - are there any wheelchair users on here who could relate their experiences?

 

[Starmill]

As I've said before the floor height of an Electrostar is almost ideal, from the perspective of easy ramped access. A London Overground 378 or London Underground S Stock is potentially more accessible than a 755 because they have staff assistance available everywhere and more space for turning in. Obviously the way the staff at these stations respond to requests for an unbooked assist or a comparison with the attitude of a conductor is a very different matter.

755s can't be level boarding everywhere because there are still a few places where platforms are slightly curved. It will be interesting to see if the 777s do better, worse, or the same at filling the gap. The 'bathtub' effect created by the step really should have been predicted.

 

[Bletchleyite]

As I've said before the floor height of an Electrostar is almost ideal, from the perspective of easy ramped access. A London Overground 378 or London Underground S Stock is potentially more accessible than a 755 because they have staff assistance available everywhere and more space for turning in. Obviously the way the staff at these stations respond to requests for an unbooked assist vs the attitude of a conductor is a very different matter.

755s can't be level boarding everywhere because there are still a few places where platforms are slightly curved.

S stock have pretty much bang-on level boarding and little gap, but is is made easier if you have one type of stock and platforms that aren't needing to support the use of anything else.

For the record the person was talking about, and included a picture, of a station where it was nominally level. Though you can do level on a curve, you can't avoid a gap to some extent because the moving step isn't curved*. However what I have noticed is that in Switzerland they near enough touch the platform with only a very small gap of maybe 1cm or so, whereas here the step seems to pull back considerably further.

* On Merseyrail this will create gaps where none existed before - Merseyrail's PEPs have very wide fixed stepboards, which would be out of gauge on most of the rest of the network, which are something like 8" wide and fully bridge pretty much all gaps except the worst ones.

 

[Rhydgaled]

I was listening to a discussion the other day (last month I think) where it was suggested that people who have mobility issues (but don't need or use a wheelchair) might find it easier to only have to step down OR across, not both at once. So a high floor, with a horizontal stepboard at floor height sticking out of the side of the unit bridgeing the horizontal gap, would do the trick - as (perhaps) would a platform at the same height as the unit's floor with a relatively big horizontal gap between then.