As someone who spends a lot of his professional life on "tourist
coaches" I thought I'd "chip in" here.....

In message , Martin Rich
writes
On a different subject, but prompted by the remarks above about
private hire, does any of the disability legislation apply to tourist
coaches?
Not yet although I have heard rumblings that it will eventually. This
will have considerable implications for the views people get from on
board, too.

I only travel on private-hire coaches once in a very blue
moon, but one of these occasions was last week, when I had a couple of
rides in a coach, complete with orange curtains and brown seating
fabric right out of the 1970s, and a tiny cupboard marked 'toilet'
which was surely only for extremely urgent visits...
They are indeed for "urgent" visits only (if only more people realised
this). The bane of my life is people who try to use them when a vehicle
is stationary, as an alternative to finding a "proper" public one.
They are the same people that then complain later in the tour if the
aforesaid loo is full or smelly or both.

How large a loo would you have liked, by the way? :-)) (Any bigger
than they are now and you lose yet more seats.)

In any case, one of my fellow-passengers was a bit under 2 years old,
so we were quite conscious of accessibility issues. Which turned out
to be appalling. The floor was much higher than on any urban bus that
I've encountered, with I think 5 or 6 steps up from the entrance.
This is the case for two reasons. Firstly, it gives space for large
amounts of luggage (which usually accompany people on such vehicles)
underneath and secondly it gives a much higher and better view.

Thanks perhaps to rather bulkier seats than a city bus,
"Bulkier" meaning much more comfortable, especially on longer journeys
which, again, these vehicles are intended to operate.

the central
aisle would barely have accommodated the most compact push-chair, let
alone an adult wheelchair.
Neither of those things is intended to go along that aisle. Both,
where appropriate, should have been stowed in the luggage hold
underneath.

There was no luggage space within the bus,
unless you count some overhead racks with very limited capacity,
Well, that's what coaches have. Again, anything bulkier goes "below".

so we
had to prop up the folded pushchair against an empty seat.
Now *that* plays havoc with safety issues. Such an object unsecured
could either block exit in the case of an emergency or else move around
an injure someone. I'm surprised at a coach driver for allowing it.

But once on the move, the views from the elevated position were great
as the bus was expertly driven along some rather narrow country roads.
And there you have it: higher up = better view.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk