Steven wrote:

Interestingly, although I'm a regular rail user, I've *never* seen anyone
with a
wheel chair use a train.

And yet millions have been spent just in case one should ever want to.

I have a few times at Clapham Juncttion and occasionally on long distance
routes. But at the moment frankly a lot of stations are utterly inaccessible
for wheelchair users, leaving only a few combinations of routes viable. Even
the stations that are good at allowing a wheelchair user to make it onto the
platform from the street then let the side down by not having the platform
at roll-on level.

I recall a leaflet from either Railtrack or one of the South London TOCs
from a decade ago about wheelchair users which was full of obstacles - from
what it seemed the wheelchairs used by about 2/3 of wheelchair users would
not be allowed for one reason or another. Staff are not able to put chairs
on and off trains - fair enough but they equally seem unable to use the
portable ramps issued to most stations. For all the central effort to make
the railways accessible and DDA compliant, a lot of staff on the ground are
not aiding that - similar to the way a lot of London bus drivers seem unable
to learn how to operate the ramps.

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

For all the central effort to make
the railways accessible and DDA compliant, a lot of staff on the ground are
not aiding that...

All too often there are no staff anyway.
For example at Micheldever (a station I use a fair amount) there are no
staff after about 9-ish and all the trains stop at an island platform.
There is no access other than the stepped subway.

My own local station has no staff after 12.50 and the upline has no
access. the only way for a wheelchair user to get off the station is to
go several stations up the line then return.

Pathetic.

John B

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Interestingly, although I'm a regular rail user, I've *never* seen anyone
with a
wheel chair use a train.


And yet millions have been spent just in case one should ever want to.


I have a few times at Clapham Juncttion and occasionally on long distance
routes. But at the moment frankly a lot of stations are utterly inaccessible
for wheelchair users, leaving only a few combinations of routes viable.

So they may need help on some routes.

Earlier this year, I changed train at Castle Cary, a middle-of-nowhere
station that gets trains stopping because it's a junction. The main
line train stopped several minutes, longer than scheduled, while the
guard helped a wheelchair user on (a nontrivial job because the platform
is only accessible by footbridge). A _good_ reason for a modest delay,
and by the time I got off (Plymouth), it had made up the lost time.

Oh, and I've seen many wheelchair users on trains. One or two were
quite memorable people.

--
Nick Kew