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Why do so few trains have level access?

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OneOffDave

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While there's no financial imperative for TOCs then nothing will change. I decide earlier in the year that every time I don't get assistance, that train isn't moving until I'm either on or off it as appropriate rather than bouncing off or crawling on the train. If that holds up the train for several minutes and causes knock on delays, then that's not my problem, it's the TOCs for failing to provide an adequately accessible service. After all, they've known that the duty to provide reasonable adjustments has been coming since 1995 or has it caught them by surprise. I need to get to work like everybody else.
 
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pt_mad

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Question. Someone wrote in another thread recently (the one about possible safeguarding issues on Northern around Barrow) that the railway has no obligation to safeguard or act as carers for any passengers including those who book assistance. However, the TOC does have an obligation to make the service accessible and the booked assist service is there to make the railway accessible to people who otherwise couldn't access it. But that it's not its not there to chaperone or act as carers or guardians for them within the booked assist service.

With that in mind, what about when passengers book assistance only for the reason that they need their case carrying and transporting? E.g. they may be elderly, and the sheet says elderly luggage assistance. Nothing else.

Surely making the railway accessible doesn't mean tocs are obligated to provide arrangements for the elderly's cases to be transported because they are too heavy for the person?
Or the sheet may read 'please find passenger a seat' on a train with no reservations. Although it's only possible for staff to request a seat if if the service is full and standing.

It's sort of a grey area between making the railway accessible and chaperoning really. As surely, making rail accessible means providing level access, ramps, lifts, a guide to people with disability impairments, accessible toilets. But luggage only assistance seems to be a different thing altogether and in theory if every elderly person travelling booked luggage assistance the system wouldn't cope as there would be hundreds of thousands a day of just luggage assistance.

Must be a fine line between those with disabilities and impairments and those who just book luggage assistance and it seems to be becoming more of a chaperone service. Where, if luggage assistance didn't arrive to the train on time, there's a chance the passenger may remain in their seat as they can't handle their case, and go on to another station. As it does seem like the railway has to act as guardians for some of the luggage only assists at times.
 
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Domh245

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Topical story time!

I have always lived in fear of being late - for work, school and friends.

As a wheelchair user, I get up at 5am for my carer to arrive to help me get dressed, often skipping breakfast to catch the 06:30 train to Waterloo.

I accept this as part of my responsibility. What I do not accept is being late for work because I have been left stranded on the train by platform staff who fail to arrive.

Unfortunately, I faced this exact situation on Tuesday morning's commute, stuck on the train for around 20 minutes - the longest in a catalogue of incidents I have begun recording over the years.

As train passengers departed I waited patiently, but no one came. Once it became clear that I had been forgotten, I was struck not by fear, but rather a familiar sense of frustrated resignation - taunted by the small yet insurmountable gap between the train and the platform.

Tired of being treated like a second-class citizen, today I decided, for the first time, to stream what was happening live. I did not do so for attention or sympathy, but rather to highlight the reality of travel as a disabled person.

South Western Railway, the train operator behind the service I was travelling on, apologised for the "unacceptable" incident and said an investigation is ongoing.

"We take accessibility seriously and want all of our customers to be able to use our trains safely and comfortably," the company said in a statement.

"We already work very closely with accessibility groups on our network to help us improve our services," it added.

However, it mirrored a near identical situation from 2016, where I was left desperately shouting for help after finding myself completely alone and unable to get to work.

This occurred at the hands of a different operator - South West Trains - but the changeover did not affect staff.

Such humiliating situations are easily avoidable, especially since the train guard in this most recent case, who helped me on board with the wheelchair ramp, had called ahead to arrange assistance with the platform staff.

But many other disabled people have experienced similar situations, including my blind former BBC colleague Lucy Edwards, who also found herself forgotten by platform staff at a London station when reporting for BBC Radio 4.

Alan Benson, chair of accessibility pressure group Transport for All said: "The accessibility of our rail network is now well behind other public transport modes like buses.

"Railway companies (which all make handsome profits) have to stop treating disabled people as second class citizens."

The frequency of the problems point to a wider systemic problem in wider society's approach to disability.

In March, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner highlighted the widespread scale of the problem after tweeting about his anger at the "casual disregard" from staff as he tried to disembark from an aircraft at Heathrow.

He said he felt his basic human rights had been denied after his wheelchair was "lost" by staff.

And that is how I felt on Tuesday morning - helpless as the clock ticked down.

Faced with the prospect of guardless, automated trains, I fear for the future and ask that rail companies play their part.

I can accept that mobility takes longer as a disabled person, I can get up at 5am, I can skip my breakfast, but I cannot and will not waste my time.

Interesting to see this line: "Faced with the prospect of guardless, automated trains, I fear for the future and ask that rail companies play their part."

There are whispers abound about legal challenges concerning accessibility on trains with regards to DOO, and the need to have a second person on the train or at the station. This would either invalidate the "rostered second person but running under limited circumstances" or would lead to high fines for TOCs. Interesting times ahead
 

DavidGrain

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A few years ago I was waiting for a train at Willesden Junction on the High Level platforms. There was a lady in a wheelchair who needed help in getting off the LOR train. All she could do was to block the door to prevent it shutting while other passengers went to speak to two railmen who were chatting to the driver before anyone could help her.
 

reytomas1228

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15 Oct 2017
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Does anyone know the reason why there are no platform humps at Highbury & Islington's ELL platforms while they were installed nearby at Canonbury? Both stations appear to have very similar platform layouts, where the ELL is more or less segregated from the NLL and no freight should be expected here. It would be so useful to have the entire northern section of the ELL offer full unassisted step-free access.
 

philthetube

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This clip demonstrates why level access can be an issue.



people see steps they don't see gaps, gaps are very difficult to avoid with curved platforms
 
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