Public transport as a wheelchair user…my experiences

I don’t often write about my experiences as a disabled person. Part of that’s because it’s not how I want to be defined. Part of it is because I long ago accepted that this is the way things are. When I do post publicly, it’s normally a short tweet – never enough to warrant a post on my blog. But I’m deliberately posting here today to give me the freedom to write a bit more.

I’m sorry if this becomes a ramble. I’m writing it in an emotional state…for the first time I can ever remember I cried on a train today. Now I have no doubt some of that’s my state of mind…I’m in shed loads of pain with my wrist and struggling to deal with it. I’m tired. But regardless, what prompted this is the unacceptable level of accessibility to public transport in the UK. I’m tired of having to fight to get around, and being stressed whenever I have to travel.

Many of you will know that earlier this week I posted about being refused access to a bus in Bournemouth. Getting the bus is not easy, especially when, as for me at the moment, you rely on it in order to be able to leave the house. Wheelchair access on buses involves the driver getting out a ramp, and then hoping that the only wheelchair space on the bus is free. That’s stress number one if you have somewhere to be.

Stress number 2 is the ‘effort’ it involves – that some drivers clearly can’t be bothered about. This week I needed to get to work when a bus driver opened the door and vaguely gesticulated that it was full. It wasn’t. People were moving to let me on. The bus driver plain and simply refused to put the ramp down and I was late to work.

I would add here that Yellow Buses have dealt with this and kept me informed of investigations, but it should never have happened.

Fast forward to my train journey today to head away on my first annual leave since July, and a much needed break after a physically and emotionally draining few weeks. What I didn’t need was a difficult journey.

As always, I booked my passenger assistance in advance. Yes, to travel in a wheelchair on UK trains you have to book at least 24 hours in advance. In 2019. Yes, I’ve been refused travel when I haven’t done so.

Today I arrived at my destination station early hoping to catch an earlier train. Nothing out of the ordinary there for an able-bodied passenger. For a wheelchair user, this isn’t so easy. The cross-country service I was travelling on has only ONE wheelchair space in standard class that was already booked. If you’re not in a ‘space’ you can’t travel (you’re ‘in the way’ in an aisle, as guards have told me on more than one occasion). This train had one more wheelchair space in first class which was not booked, but that remained empty…I wasn’t allowed to travel in that space on a standard class ticket, even though it is LITERALLY a space…nothing ‘first class’ about it.

No problem though…wait an hour for my reserved train. This train arrived at the platform with the door to the carriage with the wheelchair space on ‘out of order’. (I’m fairly certain this door must have a manual override in case of emergency, but that’s another story.) When the platform staff mentioned this to the guard the guard’s response was that ‘he can’t get on because the wheelchair door is broken’). Let me tell you that every door on this train is the same, barring the wheelchair sticker on one. And yet I had to argue to get on the train.

I get to the changeover and my booked assistance is not there. I am literally left on the train. No sign of anyone coming to help. Not the guard who knows I’m on there. Not the platform staff who will have been notified of my booking. It’s up to members of the public to stand on the platform edge preventing the train from leaving whilst someone goes to get help in order to get me off. Even though I’d booked.

15 minutes later (5 of those waiting to get off the train) and it’s time for another train. This train is run by GWR, and their new trains have their wheelchair spaces in First Class. They have 2 of them. And yet the train manager tells the platform staff ‘we already have 1 wheelchair in first class. We can’t have another.’ Again I have to fight to get on. I’m not sure why. Maybe disability is contagious. Maybe wheelchairs lower the standard of first class. Maybe I’ll never know.

What I do know is I’m tired. And this time I don’t mean tired of everything going on right now. I’m tired of having to argue and go through stress to live my daily life. I’m tired of being made to feel unwelcome or awkward just because I need to go to work or want to go away. I’m tired of not being able to access public transport simply because I’m in a wheelchair. Something has to change. It’s not acceptable in 2019 that someone who is very independent ends up in tears on a train because of the stress of a simple journey. It’s not acceptable that myself, and friends, have been locked in trains going out of service, or have gone beyond their final destination because they couldn’t get off. It’s not acceptable that what time I get to work is determined by the lottery of whether I get a bus driver that’s willing to help.

I have no doubt that this post won’t achieve much but I really hope you’ll share the hell out of it. I hope that other people will tell their stories too. I’m tired of just accepting that this is what I have to endure. I see others sharing their public transport disasters and I keep quiet, but things need to change. Maybe if enough noise is made they will.