Like many disabled people, our very own @Richard_Scope
travels a lot for work and is no stranger to the challenges of public
transport. While Richard will say he manages quite well, he recently spoke to Scope
about a time earlier this year when an inaccessible platform left him stranded
during a weekend away with his wife and daughter.
With all his assistance and tickets booked in advance, the
journey from Coventry to Kent (via London) was uneventful and all had a great
day at the seaside. It was only when time came to catch the train home that the
problems began.
‘When we arrived at the station, we were told by the station
staff that there was no wheelchair access to the platform we needed to be on.’
Richard says. ‘We were then told the only station with a lift was in the next
town!’ It turned out that the only way to the next town was by taxi, but with
the only wheelchair accessible taxi unavailable for an hour, Richard and his
family missed all their connecting trains for London.
‘We spent the last of our money on the taxi. When we
eventually got home, we were tired, thirsty and a lot later than planned. The
experience also had an upsetting effect on my daughter who was so upset at
seeing me treated so differently.’
Three months after Richard complained, one of the companies
involved apologised and accepted responsibility. But the whole situation could
have been avoided with better communication and guarantees of what could be
expected if something went wrong during Richard’s journey.
Scope are currently campaigning to help make travel fair and
we need your help if we’re going to make this happen. We want bus, train, taxi and metro
companies to make a clear promise to disabled passengers about what they should
be able to expect, and an easy way to complain if things go wrong with a
journey.
To make them listen and for our campaign to make a
difference, we need you to tell us what promises you want to see public transport companies make in order to make it easier for
disabled people to travel.
How would you improve public transport for disabled people?
What promises would you like companies to make? Tell us how to make travel fair
here and in the comments below!
