According to a recent survey by disability charity, Papworth Trust, two thirds of respondents cited having to book assistance ahead of their journey as a barrier to travel.
A ‘turn up and go’ service is currently offered by London Underground and as a trial in some London stations but could be rolled out to all 404 fully accessible stations in England. Papworth Trust has also suggested that accessibility requirements should be made a part of franchise agreements set out by the Department for Transport along with the monitoring of key performance indicators so that accessibility is no longer varied depending on supplier but consistent across the country.
The Trust has produced a report called ‘Improving rail travel for disabled passengers in the UK’ and has also pointed out some of the sector’s success stories. Southern Trains, for example, have made huge improvements, going from 5% of accessible stations in 2002 to 39% in 2014 with the number of stations classed as accessible (in England) more than doubling between 2002 to 2014.
Papworth Trust CEO Vicky McDermott, said: “People’s experiences of rail travel vary hugely depending on accessibility and the attitudes and training of staff. We have identified some small and easy changes which could make a big difference. We hope to work closely with the Government and Association of Train Operating Companies to help both parties replicate the good examples across the network.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that people simply want to turn up and go rather than have to pre-arrange travel. The current system means that a notice period of 24 hours is required as a guarantee for full service provision for disabled people. Much of what will happen will depend on the result of the General Election and how the new government treats former public entities such as railways. Even so, there is likely to be a movement towards better provision for disabled people although that doesn’t have to mean scrapping the notice period altogether.
I’m sure that the railway organisations don’t literally spend the full ‘24 hours’ working on preparing provision for disabled people that pre-order it. With this in mind it might be a wise move to start to improve things a piece at a time rather than to enforce dramatic change all at once. My own, unqualified view, is that two hours, rather than the current 24 hours, should be sufficient to make sure that a member of staff is ready with a ramp or that a guide for a blind person is waiting on the platform. This should also, in many cases prevent provision falling into gaps such as when a ‘shift’ changes.
As always, disabled people need to support people and organisations prepared to support them if they are really looking to secure a system that they can rely on. Helping rail providers to ease into a new modus operandi is likely to be the best way forward rather than adding further pressure to the way that trains are managed.
More:
The full report is available at: www.papworthtrust.org.uk/easiertrains
The charity will continue to gather feedback and stories from disabled travellers at: www.papworthtrust.org.uk/easiertrains
