Stephen Brookes MBE is Rail Policy Adviser at Disability Rights UK (DRUK), an organisation that is a member of the Transport for the North Partnership Board. In this exclusive Insight article, he discusses what he sees as a clear route to accessible rail.
In 2018 the Department for Transport launched the Inclusive Transport Strategy in which the ‘ambition’ was “for disabled people to have the same access to transport as everyone else. They will travel confidently easily and without extra cost.”
The effect of travel barriers does affect the 14 million disabled people in the UK, and this will substantially increase as it is anticipated that by 2040 13% of the population will be over 75 at which point mobility and health effects come into the equation.
Disability Rights UK works across all disabilities and organisations in promoting inclusive transport:
Pre-Covid-19, those with mobility difficulties made an average of 600 journeys per year, and there were 356,000 rail passenger bookings using the Passenger Assistance booking system. However, as we are emerging from the severe travel restrictions which were imposed on rail companies by the pandemic it is important to ensure the rapid increase in passenger loadings balanced against a continuing ‘social distancing’ applied to seating configuration does not negatively impact disabled people.
It is absolutely understood that recovery will be for a while based on a reduced capacity, but it is equally important to see that there will be an increase is national leisure journeys which will involve disabled and older passengers, and my colleague who was Sector Champion for Tourism, Chris Veitch, Accessible Transport Consultant says: “The rail companies play a crucial role in enabling people to realise things that have been unable to do safely for over a year, they are a lifeline to many with access requirements who will just want to get on a train and go to the coast or a favourite town, to meet with family or friends or just get out into the fresh air.
“The train companies play their part in the tourism value chain, in connecting people with businesses, which helps us all.”
So, additionally we need to make known the barriers that people face when travelling by rail. Given the current rate of change, we are several decades away from any real improvement. I get genuinely concerned when accessibility gets thrown into the air. Especially when there is a clear route to accessible rail.
It is particularly important everyone works together on accessibility. Disabled people must steer this, and any consultation needs a pan-disability approach. Only then we can have a real strategic approach and target government funding in the right way.
Rail companies need to start linking up. This is evident when you look at rail assistance policies.
Take my own personal experience. Because of my spine injuries and my arthritis, I cannot carry luggage. My wife also has arthritis problems, so we travel light and need assistance. This is tricky when one journey involves several rail companies. Say we book a journey from Blackpool to Cornwall. This means we are travelling with four different rail companies, but I do not want to research the various accessibility policy intricacies of each company. I want that journey to begin when I get on the train and to end when I get off in Cornwall. I do not want to get to halfway through the trip and find out two of the rail companies have different policies. A minor difference is significant enough to make the journey difficult. Everybody in the rail industry says they are trying to do their bit, but nobody is talking to each other at times.
I also want to see consistent staff training across the network. I would love this to cover respect, empathy and an “ask and listen” culture. The rail industry is still not good at that in any way, shape or form. There are members of staff who think disabled people can choose whether to use train. That is not the case. There is no reason to assume a disabled person has access to a car. We do not choose to travel; we need to travel.
When using the train, disabled people and the families that travel with them are paying for a service. It is not a given assumption that we get a travel concession. Without us, the future for the rail industry could look quite bleak. Non-disabled commuters are going to be terribly slow at coming back into the frame.
I would say rail companies need to stop consulting and start doing. Consultation’s bombard disabled rail users. I am talking as a disabled rail user myself here. I do not want to have another raft of at least five consultations per week. I want to see action now. I want to see all disabilities considered.
Finally, we need to make sure we do not keep getting the same consultation in a different wrapping. We need to get the sense of what is important. Then we can plan what to do and do it on a one off collective basis.
I cannot see why we cannot do that. As DRUK Rail Policy Adviser I say: “We will keep an eye on ensuring disabled people travelling are not adversely impacted or put off trains by increased demand and social distancing.”