wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 03:22:00 -0800 (PST)
George wrote:
Wouldn't a taxi that took them from door to door be of far more use?
Shame it doesn't fit in with some people's politically correct ideals
eh?

Don't forget that in politically correct world their is no such thing as
a limit on the amount that should be spent accommodating minorities to
make
metropolitan liberals feel smug and self justified.

Even if wheelchair users have door to door service thats not good enough.
Far better to spend a few hundred million quid on upgrading the entire
tube system so a few hundred extra people in wheelchairs can suffer the
misery of it too.

The problem is:

if you spend 10 million pounds a year on special taxi fares for disabled
people, when a period of austerity comes along that money is easy to cut.

But if you've spent 200 million on infrastructure changes that are costing
you 10 million a year in finance costs you've no choice but to continue
paying it

tim

On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:40:49 -0000
"tim...." wrote:
The problem is:

if you spend 10 million pounds a year on special taxi fares for disabled
people, when a period of austerity comes along that money is easy to cut.

But if you've spent 200 million on infrastructure changes that are costing
you 10 million a year in finance costs you've no choice but to continue
paying it

Well money aside there are also more practical considerations. Deep level
tube trains are not large and in the rush hour even suitcases cause problems.
Wheelchair users would have no chance even in the new trains with the
pointless wheelchair section (if theres nowhere for people to move out of the
way to to let a wheelchair go there they won't move, end of) since commuters
are not going to get off to allow someone in a wheelchair to take their
place. They'd either have to get on somewhere near the end of the line, not
use it during busy periods or forget it and get a taxi.

B2003

I think they could have done much more with the money spent if they
targeted the spening in a more sensible way. For example they are
currently making Green Park accesible at a huge cost.

They could have got a lot more stations done if they spent it on the
Subsurface stations on the circle line. A scheme to link the main
line termini is surely long overdue. And why dont they do such
stations as Covent Garden which already has lifts so only need a small
lift for stairs down to the platforms.

In article ,
trainmanUK wrote:
I think they could have done much more with the money spent if they
targeted the spening in a more sensible way. For example they are
currently making Green Park accesible at a huge cost.

That's being paid for out of the Olypic/Paralypic budgets, because
it's the nearest station to a venue used in the Paralympics.

They could have got a lot more stations done if they spent it on the
Subsurface stations on the circle line. A scheme to link the main
line termini is surely long overdue. And why dont they do such
stations as Covent Garden which already has lifts so only need a small
lift for stairs down to the platforms.

It's a non-trivial problem to optimize, frankly. Euston Square is
less important to make accessible now that Kings X is accessible
because there are good bus links between the two (and busses are
accessible), for example; stations which are good interchanges are
important compared to stations which aren't; but there is no point
is /just/ making Zone 1 stations accessible, 'cos there aren't many
people living in Zone 1 compared to the suburbs.

I do not envy those who try and form sensible policy in this area.

--
Mike Bristow