When Rail Travel For Disabled People Goes Wrong
Stranded on trains, denied an accessible loo and forced to be carried through step-filled stations. Disabled rail travellers have been telling a new documentary what happens when the system designed to help them doesn’t work.
“Does the other end know I’m coming?”
This is the line wheelchair-user Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson repeats time and again to staff on every train journey.
It may sound overzealous but Grey-Thompson says that while it makes for a stressful trip, lots of people who write to her about travel experiences do the same. Many disabled travellers worry that they won’t be met with the help they need at the other end.
“I’ve been left on a train at 01:00, with no ramp to help me off,” she tells this weekend’s 5 live Investigates on BBC Radio 5 live.
The crossbench peer works in London and lives in the Northeast of England. She travels regularly between the two by train, arranging help in advance via Passenger Assist, a specialist booking system for disabled people to reserve seats and arrange extra help at stations.
When no ramp materialised for Grey-Thompson that night, she says, “I had to get out of my chair onto the floor near the toilet, crawl off and push my chair off.”
She goes public when things go wrong, tweeting and writing about her experiences, “to make it better for other people”.
Speaking again of the night she was left stranded, she says, “If I’d been in a situation where I wasn’t as mobile as I am, I’m not sure how long I would have been stuck on that train.”
A report critiquing the Passenger Assist service by the watchdog Passenger Focus says that despite booking help in advance, there was no assistance for their disabled mystery shoppers to help them get off the train in 21% of cases.
The report highlights issues that are only too real for some disabled travellers. Claire Jones from Leeds, who uses a mobility scooter, recently booked assistance but when no one turned up to help it meant that rather than alight at Birmingham as planned, she was forced to travel on to Cheltenham, 40 miles down the line.
“When you have a disability like mine, which affects your energy levels, there is only a certain amount of time you can sit in a scooter. It determines how much time you can travel.”
Another issue uncovered by the recent investigation into the Passenger Assist Scheme was that disabled travellers were not given all the information they needed about a journey. There were instances where the mystery shoppers who’d been testing the system found that stations were less accessible than they were led to believe.
Wheelchair user Paula Moulton says that on one occasion she’d been made aware that a station’s platforms weren’t accessible via ramp, but decided that she could manage this in her manual chair by careful manoeuvring.
However, a “bizarre surprise” awaited her on arrival. “What they didn’t tell us was that there were two flights of stairs and a bridge to get over to the other side. Some really nice guys picked me up and carried me, which I hate happening, but I hadn’t got an option.”
In the past, lack of information has left Grey-Thompson without an accessible toilet for up to five hours.
“Disabled people are used to making lots of decisions about how they travel,” she says. If given the right information about the loo situation, “you don’t drink for an hour and a half before you get on the train to make sure you don’t need to use the bathroom”.
But what Grey-Thompson says challenges her most is that these “aren’t decisions any non-disabled person has to make”.
Having to book help a day in advance to guarantee assistance is a particular gripe of hers. “Disabled people just want to make decisions to meet a friend for lunch, or to just do something different. We don’t always know 24 hours in advance what time we want to travel.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport says, “The Passenger Assist Scheme is a vital service and we expect train operating companies to ensure it is working well. That is why we helped to fund a study into the system, and we will look to the rail industry to take forward any recommendations.”
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, which speaks on behalf of the industry says:
“We apologise to anyone who hasn’t had the service they expect. The industry has worked hard to improve facilities for disabled passengers which are better now than they’ve ever been with record numbers choosing to travel by train.
“While the UK recently came top of Europe’s seven major railways for accessibility, the industry is always looking to improve and to provide the best experience possible to disabled passengers.”
Minister of State for Transport, Baroness Kramer, says that fining companies for failing to provide assistance is the wrong approach. She says that instead we have to “culturally embed, from the top of the company down to the humblest person that (they) have as much of a duty to serve a disabled person as anybody else.”
Grey-Thompson says that getting assistance right and making trains and stations more accessible is important because “changes to welfare support mean that people who might have had a motability car in the past won’t – so there will be more people taking public transport”.
Same Difference 
“Minister of State for Transport, Baroness Kramer, says that fining companies for failing to provide assistance is the wrong approach. She says that instead we have to “culturally embed, from the top of the company down to the humblest person that (they) have as much of a duty to serve a disabled person as anybody else.””
Presumably this means that they don’t need to give Disabled people the extra assistance they need if they are treating them like the able bodied.
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I too was left stranded on a train at Fenchurch Street (complaint has gone off); what was reprehensible was the driver came and told me, someone on their way, to move back and then he shut down the train and locked the doors with me still on the train. I felt trapped and had a ghastly panic attack. It was an awful experience. If you have to travel, Southeastern Trains are the BEST with disabled ramp assistance. Greater Anglia have been bad at Southend Victoria twice on the last two Saturdays with having to wait over 10 minutes to get off the train. I am fed up with this. I have to use trains (3 hours each way from Southend to Maidstone) as I am waiting for a new wheelchair accessible car. By car it is only an hour and a quarter to drive home, by train, 3 hours late at night and on the mercy of staff. Complaining DOES help, the service at West Ham has got much better now.
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Why couldn’t public companies EMPLOY Disabled professionals within their infrastructure? The “Them and Us” attitude of from top to bottom has to STOP. Inclusive management works well with good practice in evidence on a daily basis.
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Agree with that, great point. I am also profoundly Deaf and I hate the intercom press for help and listen as I have no hearing and cannot even tell if someone is speaking. It has been awful at times when there have been no other passengers at the station and I am stuck on my own.
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To be fair, I have only twice had problems, and I am not as disabled as the people who have told these awful stories. Once when I arrived in Edinburgh there was no-one to meet me – the point is that to reach the taxi rank and exit in Waverley Station if you arrive from London, there is a bridge to cross, for which of course I have to have assistance to use the lift. Usually the people at KX do phone ahead, but something had gone wrong and because the train was delayed, no-one knew anything about me and I was left standing on the platform on my own, and none of the staff knew anything. Finally after about 10 minutes they managed to find someone to bring the wheelchair. Another time at Paddington I was just left to fend for myself – but when I did finally manage to locate a member of staff, it transpired that there had been an accident on the platform, someone more disabled than myself had fallen and an ambulance had to be called – well obviously that had to take priority, it was just that I didn’t KNOW, and thought I’d been abandoned.
It works better at smaller stations. I travel quite regularly between Paddington and Stroud, and some of the staff at Stroud know me now,. Also I travel regularly between London and Pisa, obviously I don’t expect anyone at Heathrow to recognise me, but Pisa is a much smaller airport and some of the staff there do know me.
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I travel frequently at some stations and again, staff don’t turn up. Last night, no one at West Ham for the 22.49 train for which I had booked ramp assistance (I use a powerchair which is a powered wheelchair). I have found the best thing to do is “hot-foot” it full speed whizz to the driver. He then phoned and I HAD booked it. He refused to move the train till I got on! Staff came running about 7 mins late and I got on the train. Stressed and in tears, but got on. Had I missed that I would not have got home till half past midnight! I am working and HAVE got to get those trains. WHY OH WHY DOES IT TAKE 12-16 WEEKS TO GET A NEW MOTABILITY CAR?????? It takes 3 hours and 4 trains to get home from work (Maidstone to Westcliff-on-Sea) and only an hour and ten minutes in the evening by car. I am soooooo fed up. On a positive note, Southeastern trains, pre-booked, have NEVER let me know – they are really really good and have ramps ready and waiting when I have to change trains at Ashford.
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I have spent almost 20 years as a wheelchair user and things are getting worse. I use trains several times a month. Over the last few months pre booked assistance has failed to materialize at destination station or connecting station on at least 6 occasions. Whilst train staff have helped me off with their ramps on many occasions, this does not happen on most mainline trains. 3 weeks ago assistance off a connecting train failed leaving me to somehow find lifts and work out which platform I needed to get to at the opposite side of a large station The person who should have got me off the first train was expected to get several disabled passengers off trains on different platforms at the same time. If I formally complain they offer to refund the ticket, but this does not help me when I need assistance.
I attempted to come back from a meeting on another occasion to find all trains from St Pancras cancelled. Passenger Assistance had made no attempt to contact me, and the stations only help was to tell me to go to another station. I was on the point of exhaustion with little energy to propel myself, or work out an accessible route as there was a massive lack of dropped kerbs between 2 newly refurbished stations.
My home station has recently undergone refurbishment after a DFT grant to improve access. It is now much worse. I used to be able to park with no barriers or ticket payment machines to tax my lack of dexterity. Now I have to deal with angry drivers when I delay others entering the long stay car park at the barrier.(which had no access to the station for wheelchair users or when first told to use it) the help button is impossible to reach without an implement of the right length. I now face nearly all the blue badge spaces being covered with large containers, a portaloo and barriers, which make even using empty spaces impossible to get in due to work to improve facilities including showers for cyclists with another Government grant. To get out of the car park I need to put the ticket that I could not remove at the barrier into a payment machine that will not accept a chip and signature card. I tend to drop change. I then have to somehow put the ticket in the exit barrier. The train operating company will not make reasonable adjustment for me as it is worried it will open the flood gates at stations with similar barriers! There are short term disabled spaces at the front of the station but I am not allowed to use them for more than an hour. These spaces are mostly abused by non disabled people and rarely policed.
The refurbishment changed the site of the taxi rank. All taxis that use it have to have ramps, but the paved pick up is on the wrong side in a one way system. When this was pointed out to Network Rail and the train operating company during refurbishment they eventually agreed to turn a short term disabled space in to a extra wide disabled pick up to allow ramps from even the largest of taxis. However at peak times when I return this space is always abused making no safe way of getting home. Even the pedestrian routes out of the station are down steep slopes that do not meet the gradient guidelines. Other passengers do not use the newly created steps so with a self propelled manual chair it is a case of playing skittles to get out, and persuading a stranger to help you going in. Even the so called level areas of the forecourt have an adverse camber throwing those with poor mobility off balance. There are much longer distances for those with mobility problems to travel with no seats provided. Officials are worried they will by homeless people. Even the new ticket office counter is too low for many wheelchair users to be able to get under. On cold days since the refurbishment one is often faced with closed heavy double wooden doors into the station, that never used to be shut. It is virtually impossible for me to get in or out unaided if this happens. To get down to the platforms lifts are needed, but often these are out of use for up to 3 months with no urgency by Network Rail to repair them. December was spent crawling down stairs, as the alternative barrow crossing is a long distance away, and takes ages for permission to be given to cross. Steep ramps down would tip my current wheelchair over.
Once eventually on the train more barriers are faced. Luggage frequently blocks my reserved space, abuse is often forthcoming by its owners , many try to box me in or tell me I do not need to use the table, even though they are using one. On another companies trains the space has fold down seats, which passengers are reluctant to vacate and frequently try to put a seat down on top of my legs. On other trains one is competing with bikes which even if they have not blocked your space block off the disabled loo.
Travelling by train is too full of uncertainty, on top of what normal travellers face. I avoid weekends. I have been put on the wrong train, left on board an evacuated train by staff even though it was at a station and had to be removed by police. A broken peg on a train ramp led to a 5 hour taxi ride, double the length of the train journey. The next 2 days will involve at least 4 trains , with likely hood of facing a battle even to get a taxi home. I am not sure why my local station just not put up a sign stating disabled passengers not welcome. They have restricted all means of independent travel to it for me. I am not sure it is worth the effort trying to be a useful member of society. Advanced tickets are virtually a no go area for wheelchair users when there are so few spaces. Even if you reserve one I have been bumped off trains by other users and been asked to pay full fare on the next train. I can not blame others for not using Passenger Assistance when so much of the time they fail to deliver.
There are only so many coping skills you can use, like travelling first class to use the loos in stations with first class lounges, and ability to get refreshments without handling change., and ability for staff to get assistance whilst waiting in somewhere warm. On the trains there is usually more staff to check assistance is in place. I am capable of getting to a train door and tend to prevent it being shut when assistance fails. Being left stranded at my home station unable to get home is harder to solve when they make it virtually impossible for me to take my own car down, or use a taxi to get home,
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I sent a complaint to c2c about their service. They sent back a heartfelt apology with lots of action and I have seen some of this action already. The service is definitely improving. Please, everyone, when things go wrong, don’t just moan – complain in writing. Step by step, things will improve. Yesterday I had to travel across London in the tube strike. Buses were fine in the middle of the day and c2c were extremely helpful – I can now contact disabled assistance by email which is super as I am deaf and phoning while on the move is not possible. They met all my needs yesterday and I had no travel worries (apart from one bus 205 where the ramp did not work) but got home a bit later than I do normally as I had to go to Fenchurch Street instead of West Ham which was shut. I am now getting more confident. Please fellow travellers, please complain when things go wrong. c2c for one, does take it seriously. They are also going to refund a week’s worth of travel costs for me as well.
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Am gutted at your experience too! Fellow wheelchair traveller – sending you a hug of sympathy
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