Dame Tanni Grey Thompson forced to crawl off train!

[Elderflower14]

Makes me angry and sad in equal measure.
I have had similar issues with ds2 travelling on the train. He is deaf, dyspraxic and autistic so perhaps not quite the same as Tanni. People sometimes don't arrive to help him and his luggage off the train. It happened as recently as Saturday when no one came to take him down to his train. With three minutes to go a TFL man took him down.
I was with a train accessibility manager having a meeting due to bad service last year. I have dyspraxia too so don't use the lift when I have luggage. We walked down the steps to the underpass and the lift was broken..
"Oh the lift is broken.. How would ds2 and I get up to the platform?"
"That's not our lift it's TFLs"
"That's not what I asked... How would ds2 and I get up to the platform?"
"There is another lift round the corner!"
"But it doesn't tell you on that lift where the other lift is does it??" 🤔 🤔 🤔
Another time when ds2 was left to walk through an underpass at midnight alone I complained and the lady said she didn't suppose he looked deaf!!! That made me very angry.
The sunflower lanyard has helped but unfortunately ds2 forgot his on Saturday and when he started to get stressed the TFL man told him to shh.
Everytime ds2 is left on a train I complain. I'm aware that he is able to get off the train and find someone but I always say that he could be someone in a wheelchair like Tanni and unable to get off the train.
I read on the Euston Station X page where a wheelchair user asked staff to get a ramp to help him board a train. Twice they told him he didn't need a ramp and to try and board without. The third time they went and got the ramp. When they got back the train had gone and the man was left on the platform!! 😡 😡
I have sort of made it a mission to bring this sort of thing to train companies attention.

I struggle with heavy luggage and I always think how awful it must be if you’re disabled

My eyes were properly opened to this issue when a young relative of mine had to use a wheelchair for a couple of years and travelling around London with her was a nightmare. I can’t even begin to think how horrendous it must be if it’s your daily reality.

Yeah, put simply, it's a pain in the arse. Always interesting when I go out with new people and they suddenly discover what it's like.

Thankyou to everyone who has shared their stories today.. It's so sad to see how much it happens.
Our train liason man is on holiday and is going to have a huge shock when he gets back to his desk and sees the emails from ds2 and I. Ds2's had lots of capital letters in it!! 🙊 🙊 🙊
Such a shame as things had been improving but have now slid back!!

I was left on a train last year. I arrived at Paddington and no one came to get me off. I was about 25 minutes banging on the window, trying to call for help, trying to find a number to call etc. Eventually a cleaner found me and went off to get help.
It has resulted in a lack of trust. Now I am super anxious before and during journeys, worrying that it will happen again. I travel on trains about two or three times a month and only started using them last July so the percentage of failure is actually really high.

That's awful. I'm so sorry.

Every time I travel somewhere with loads to carry and a child or two to hang onto I always end up thinking how does a wheelchair user or someone with limited mobility manage. So many lifts out of service. We need to do better.

Last Saturday train bad horrid I no happy from Stratford London to diss people work there tft not patient with me autism plus no help Stratford London grrrrrr plus me forget my sunflower lanyard home 😢😢😢😢😢😢

I been worried but mumma said I no worry I doing really good job but it not that easy as I get really nervous and anxious if things go wrong train different times or late or also travel new places I nervous but I overcome with this but last Saturday no good 😢😢😢😢😢

(pokes head above the parapet and waves a white flag 🏳️) I come in peace. But I'll preface my point by saying I am a tube worker.

I think that training and staffing are both insufficient. I get a briefing from a manager on new arrangements whilst at work, whilst trying to concentrate on running my station, alone. Not much goes in, tbh. Practical and frequent training on things like, ramps, and guiding, and planning journeys, is sparse. Not an excuse, but a reality.

Did you know that if a (TfL) lift is out if service I am obliged to call the customer a taxi to the next accessible station? I don't know about NR policy, though.

Anyway, much of the Tube is inaccessible so we have to try and mitigate for that by planning journeys involving other modes (bus, DLR etc) for customers, having raised parts of the platform (still not good enough for small front wheels, tbh) and providing leaflets and badges and everything else to attempt to make the Tube for everyone.

However, things go wrong, a lot. Breakdown of communication, lack of staff, service disruptions, equipment being faulty tbe list goes on. Again, no excuse, just saying how it is. It shouldn't happen, but it does.

If you follow other disabled people on Twittex your eyes are really opened to the problems.

I used to work at a Major Tube Station Under a National Rail Terminus in North London and I would take a customer up to the correct NR gateline, find four or five staff standing around chatting about nothing of consequence, and when I asked them to assist my customer, the first thing they always said was, "Have they booked it?" I used to get angry and say, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS HELP THIS CUSTOMER ON TO THE TRAIN and they would huff and puff and make the person feel small and like a burden. AND they would have a go at me for merely for being a decent, helpful human being and would berate the customer for not planning in advance.

If we are to treat Everyone The Same then we must assume everyone has emergency dashes to somewhere via public transport, so othering disabled people because they have the AUDACITY to need to get somewhere asap and urgently is Just Not On. Why can't everyone have the same access to public transport?

Lastly I was on a Renfe train in Spain this past week and the trains roll out a ramp automatically on the accessible carriages to the platform without the need for staff, and I'm sorry to say I was delighted and impressed. Why can't we have that in Britain? Then I saw on Twittex that the Rolling Stock Company who provides trains on LNER, whom Dame Tanni was travelling with, is a major donor to the Tories, and, should have put in fully accessible carriages by 2020, but the Tory Government of the time, didn't GAF about PT in general, (hence the NR strikes) so didn't enforce the change.

(Sorry for the ramble. Being in the industry can make you a bit boring sometimes)

This is all good ramble!
I definitely agree with your point about it being a more systemic issue. Aside from the odd staff member who's gone out of their way to be arsey, 90% of access issues on transport could be solved with better investment and better training, as you say.
I actually don't mind when I have to direct workers on how to fit the ramp when it's clear I've seen it done more often than they have. I wish they were better trained, but I don't blame them for that. I only get frustrated when staff demonstrate a lack of empathy for us as humans, although again I think a lot of this could be solved by more training to understand what it's actually like to rely on other people to get on the train. Probably wishful thinking to expect your average Joe to think about that without being told! But I'm never unpleasant to workers, even when they're unpleasant to me. Partly because I think a lot of the negative attitudes I get aren't necessarily the fault of the individual workers showing them, but again more systemic, but mostly because I am quite literally reliant on them. Being a wheelchair user, in my experience, means a lot of laughing politely at the jokes and smiling obediently at the jibes of men (and it is mostly men I get an attitude from) who are in positions of very real power over you.

It's the fact that a disabled person using a wheelchair or mobility scooter can't just decide to get on a train. Ds took his dad to Edinburgh for a day out, he had to preplan everything, book for the ramps & help to be available, they couldn't just have decided that morning to take the trip. If ticket offices are going to be closed, who will help a disabled person to sort tickets & the best way to plan their journey. Some public transport is great, the Supertram in Sheffield is excellent, they are virtually level access. Taxis are a problem because so few cars are build to accept a wheelchair, if I need a taxi, I have to remember to ask for a saloon car as I can't manage to climb in a black cab & if I'm taking my folding electric wheelchair I have to ask for one that has a big enough boot to get it in. Travel isn't designed for disabled people, we are expected to just stay at home permanently, no wonder so many disabled people choose to have a motability car. Even things like bus routes are a pain, if you can't get to the bus stop or the bus doesn't take you right to where you need to be it is useless, City Centres are being made virtually no go areas for cars & buses, it's no wonder the out of town retail parks & shopping Malls are taking trade away from them when they have good disabled parking & are accessible.

I got kicked off my dentist's list because I can't access the steep steps to get in & have to use the back door, I used to have to ring when I was outside & wait for a receptionist to come & unlock the gate to then have to sit on a chair in the back yard until it's my turn often in pouring rain. They got fed up of it & booted me out.

I wonder if there is a bit my job mentality in helping the disabled in a lot of spheres. I removed asking for support or temporary use of a wheelchair for my daughter (not permanently disabled) at a hospital at night from a doctor who looked at a nearby wheelchair, called for a nurse who then called a porter to wheel the chair. It seems to be the most lowly paid in hospitals that need to transport patients i.e. there is an attitude of transporting disabled people as an undignified job for those on the lowest rung.

of this attitude permeates to other areas of society maybe there is a culture of the most juniou r staff member being the one with duty of ensuring the safety of the disabled and this causes an unfortunate resnetment?

there seems to be an attitude that unless you are a relative or close friend the wheeling of chairs is viewed as a menial unskilled task that highlights you have a 'loser' job. It's a horrible perspective but one that I fear exists.

Maybe compare with a route across Sweden, which was very accessible if you can navigate the apps to pay.

Just got back from putting ds2 on the train home. The area manager for the train company was at the station so he got his ear bent by both ds2 and I..
Poor ds2 was worrying all morning that he would have the same happen on the return journey as happened on the way home. That's what they don't realise. They put him on the train and poooof all forgotten. Not for ds2 and certainly not for me! 😔 😔