Access to transport denied to disabled people

Image: Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford & Isleworth speaking to Parliament in the debate on access to transport for disabled people on Thursday 20 March; Parliamentlive.tv

Two thirds of disabled people say every journey they take is problematic

Ruth Cadbury MP told Parliament that disabled people are effectively barred from using public transport; many do not take journeys because it is just too difficult, and that equality and transport legislation designed to protect their rights isn’t working.

The MP for Brentford & Isleworth, who chairs the Select Committee for Transport, chose to make disabled people’s access to transport the subject of her committee’s first report to this Parliament on Thursday 20 March.

Their report calls for a single body to be set up to triage accessibility complaints, and a review of the legal framework which governs the accessibility of public transport.

Ruth Cadbury told Parliament her committee had heard evidence from disabled people, who had given them evidence of:

“rail stations that remain stubbornly inaccessible, taxi services that have refused carriage because of assistance dogs, and being left high and dry at airports or on trains when they have booked passenger assistance that just does not arrive on time.

“No mode of transport is free from problems,” she said, despite most notionally having accessible facilities and policies.”

The Transport committee heard evidence from people with autism, and those who had health conditions which meant they needed easy access to toilets, as well as those with the more obvious disabilities of impaired sight or the need to use a wheelchair.

Ruth Cadbury told the Commons 60% of disabled people who had responded to the committee’s survey said that almost every journey was beset with problems.

Image: Ruth Cadbury taking questions from MPs on the Transport Select Committee’s report, including one from Hammersmith and Chiswick MP Andy Slaughter about step-free access to Kew and Gunnersbury stations; Parliamentlive.tv

One third say that more than once a week they don’t take journeys because they’re too difficult

More than a third said that more than once a week they decided not to make a journey because they knew it would be too complicated, too unsafe or that things were likely to go wrong.

“That is simply an unacceptable infringement of people’s human rights to go to work, to access education, health care and family, to participate in society and just to have fun,” she said.

One of the participants told them:

“There’s an assumption that disabled people’s time is less valuable—that it’s okay to make us wait for a rail worker to turn up with a ramp. I’ve been late to important meetings because of this, and it makes me feel like a second-class citizen…

“I barely go to see my mum or friends at home because the transport is so bad for wheelchair users, I don’t know how I’d do it. It’s affected my friendships, relationships and working life, and it’s embarrassing. I just want to be able to use public transport like everyone else.”

Image: Ruth Cadbury; Parliamentlive.tv

Equality and transport legislation not working

Ruth Cadbury told the House the laws in place to promote accessibility and equality, were clearly not working.

Her committee’s report set out examples of accessibility being deprioritised, “often because it is seen as too impractical or costly to achieve it.”

Only about a third of Underground stations across the city provide step-free access. In Chiswick, none of the District Line’s three stations – Turnham Green, Chiswick Park or Gunnersbury – have step-free access.

Transport for London said last year that Turnham Green is finally on the list of stations being assessed for its suitability for a feasibility study to be done to see how complicated and how costly it would be to introduce step-free access.

READ ALSO: Turnham Green tube station to be considered for step free access

Image: Ruth Cadbury; Parliamentlive.tv

Access to transport a “human right”

Accessibility is not taken into account early enough in the process of policy development, Ruth Cadbury told MPs:

“A change of mindset throughout the system, from the top down, is needed urgently. Failures should be vanishingly rare, not commonplace.

“Access to transport must be recognised as a human right, not as a matter of customer service.”

She also said it was “punishingly hard” to hold anyone to account for failures.

“Seeking redress, or even just reporting them to the responsible body, is a huge, exhausting and often thankless burden.

“As a result, while individual disabled people often lose count of the number of occasions on which they have been failed, regulators can generally count on the fingers of one or two hands the number of formal enforcement actions that have been taken. We must bring that into balance.”

Image: Ruth Cadbury; Parliamentlive.tv

Report calls for a single enforcement body and a review of the legal framework proposed

The Transport Committee’s report asks Ministers to move towards “a more robust active enforcement regime” and suggests a single body to triage accessibility complaints, to ensure they reach the relevant operator or authority, and follow them up if not resolved:

“a single overarching body  with responsibility for standards enforcement across transport modes, which would replace the hotchpotch of laws, policies and processes that disabled people must navigate with a more effective approach to asserting the rights of disabled travellers.”

The committee wants the legal framework to be reviewed.

In the following debate Jeremy Corbyn MP pointed out that in London, ticket offices had been closed by Transport for London some time ago, and asked whether the report included anything about the possibility of reopening those ticket offices.

No response yet on step-free access for Kew Bridge and Gunnersbury stations

Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith asked what could be done to speed up the provision of step-free access in London.

“Londoners often complain about their train service,” he said, “but actually it is pretty good, with the overground, the underground and Network Rail.

“However, it is barred to many disabled travellers—taking an example at random, Kew Bridge and Gunnersbury stations … What can we do to change feasibility studies into actuality in such places?”

Ruth Cadbury answered:

“I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for raising the issue of the two stations where both of our constituents need step-free access. I have not yet had an answer from the Rail Minister on the Access for All programme for those two stations, but I will keep chasing.”

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