TheGrew
Member
- Joined
- 31 Jul 2012
- Messages
- 511
Yesterday I made the trip from Newton-le-Willows to York with my toddler and buggy and treated myself to a first-class upgrade; partially as I know that's where the only wheelchair spaces (to keep the buggy up) are on the Nova 1 / Class 802 fleet and partially as I thought it was worth it for the fairly long journey across the Pennines.
Normally I have found first-class to be at the Newcastle end (appreciate the sets often end get turned at Newcastle!) but on the outward journey, it was at the rear. Fortunately, I was able to get on the rear of the 4th coach and make the way just about into the 5th first-class coach to continue on my way.
On the way back through first class was at the rear, this creates a little bit of a problem at Newton though which can only take 4 coaches. Not a problem as I knew this well in time and could manoeuvre to the rear door of the fourth coach however on departing Manchester the guard announced only the front 3 coaches (Google satellite imagery fairly clearly shows 4 can fit though: https://goo.gl/maps/XM56b6h9TXZ73eMq6 ).
Unfortunately, my buggy is too wide for the quite narrow aisle so I collapsed it and had to carry it over the heads of everyone in the fourth coach with my toddler following me down the aisle, not a great experience but I made it work.
What did get me thinking though is that a motorized wheelchair user boarded at Huddersfield and while they wanted to go right through to Liverpool there is no way they could have got off the train at either Newton or Lea Green without the driver deliberately overshooting, which certainly at Newton strikes me as somewhat ironic, considering the considerable work done to ensure the station is as accessible as possible (no idea why they don't extend the platform about 30m east which is well within signal sighting!).
Does this happen elsewhere on the network or is it just an unfortunate combination of short platforms and poor design choices in putting the wheelchair spaces at one end of the train than somewhere more in the middle?
Based on seat maps the Nova 2 would also potentially suffer this problem though I suspect it doesn't have to use SDO at any of the stations it is scheduled to call at. The Nova 3s (which traditionally have stopped at Lea Green) also look to have this potential problem if the 68 is at the Scarborough end.
Normally I have found first-class to be at the Newcastle end (appreciate the sets often end get turned at Newcastle!) but on the outward journey, it was at the rear. Fortunately, I was able to get on the rear of the 4th coach and make the way just about into the 5th first-class coach to continue on my way.
On the way back through first class was at the rear, this creates a little bit of a problem at Newton though which can only take 4 coaches. Not a problem as I knew this well in time and could manoeuvre to the rear door of the fourth coach however on departing Manchester the guard announced only the front 3 coaches (Google satellite imagery fairly clearly shows 4 can fit though: https://goo.gl/maps/XM56b6h9TXZ73eMq6 ).
Unfortunately, my buggy is too wide for the quite narrow aisle so I collapsed it and had to carry it over the heads of everyone in the fourth coach with my toddler following me down the aisle, not a great experience but I made it work.
What did get me thinking though is that a motorized wheelchair user boarded at Huddersfield and while they wanted to go right through to Liverpool there is no way they could have got off the train at either Newton or Lea Green without the driver deliberately overshooting, which certainly at Newton strikes me as somewhat ironic, considering the considerable work done to ensure the station is as accessible as possible (no idea why they don't extend the platform about 30m east which is well within signal sighting!).
Does this happen elsewhere on the network or is it just an unfortunate combination of short platforms and poor design choices in putting the wheelchair spaces at one end of the train than somewhere more in the middle?
Based on seat maps the Nova 2 would also potentially suffer this problem though I suspect it doesn't have to use SDO at any of the stations it is scheduled to call at. The Nova 3s (which traditionally have stopped at Lea Green) also look to have this potential problem if the 68 is at the Scarborough end.
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