I love some of Wolter's World's videos but I've shied away from episodes about UK topics. I'm not embarrassed about things and I might otherwise find it interesting to see my own country through a very different lens, but some American tourist guide channels and books (as well as some UK writers and journalists, to be scrupulously fair) can be a bit condescending at times and there's a whole 'If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium' or plummy 'meet the colourful natives who I've literally called Boris and Natasha and learn something immensely spiritual from their different lives' kind of feel to it that non-tourist advice travelogue and geography videos don't have. (Unless it's Bill Bryson, then we're good! He sees the world like an ordinary tourist does, warts and all, and is able to laugh with people rather at them. He wrote a really good book about taking rail and bus links around Europe back in the 80s and I re-read it every time I get back from a trip of my own.)
Full disclaimer: I'm physically disabled and walk with a cane. Despite the bones in my foot having got stronger under decent physical therapy and getting the best possible surgery the country could offer, the underlying injury I suffered nearly four years ago has never healed to the point where I can walk normally or run. So I'm not the person to speak to assisted travel, which from people's experiences here hasn't been great. Maybe it's the difference between just needing ad hoc assistance and the systemic problems with railway advice, but I've felt supported and encouraged to travel by train.
One thing that I might add from my experiences though is that even when they exist, lifts can be shoehorned in a long way from the place where you get on and off trains. Slough is a miserable place to change trains for me having to limp all the way to the lift and back to get a train to tourist hotspot Windsor. Oxford is quite a wide spread out station with a long way to walk between the entrance from a London train (although to their credit the trains back to London are immediately beyond the barriers, such that I was able to make it this afternoon in about thirty seconds from getting my ticket ready to scan on the barriers).
Maidenhead isn't a particular tourist trap but it's been under wraps for most of the last year and they're struggling to fit everything in without making it feel like a sewer.
The age of the stations and the vagaries of Victorian design sometimes cause problems, and the modern hubs like Reading are pretty good. But trying to get lifts into many of the legacy places is harder work and even when there is step free access it can be challenging to find it.
I have, however, found station staff to be extremely kind in terms of casual help around the station. Kudos to the guards at Reading this afternoon who helped me on to the half one train to Basingstoke after I cut it very fine getting to one side of the station to the other in five minutes. Along with responding to a hand signal when I got within sight of the train, they discouraged me from running and let me take my time. Other station staff have called me lifts, helped me downstairs with bags and given me advice to avoid a particular workaround route in times of disruption because it involved a significant out of station interchange -- and let me know a different route.
Actual assisted travel might vary in quality but, being below the threshold of need on that score but still challenged in the mobility department, I have found that people in general -- passengers and staff -- have closed the gaps for me. I do my utmost to help others out too, but it is nice to know people do care in a very real sense.
Mind you, though, the Americans themselves have been decent with disability issues and transport. I was whisked to the front of the line in customs when I went to Disneyworld two years ago so I didn't have to stand in a long queue. It was something that had caused me a lot of anxiety about the trip -- my first intercontinental journey alone -- and they left a lasting impression on me in a good way. I don't usually have to ask for a seat over here, but over there it was pretty much automatic when they saw me limping along to the bus.
The big problem, though, is that this is just people being kind and not the system working in practical terms for everyone who needs it to. I just hope we can improve things in general without having to be specific about how we do station accessibility and assisted travel.
