Woman on crutches getting off train - who was in the right?

[witchofzog]

I am on an extremely busy rush hour train. So busy that people are standing and you often literally have to fight your way on.

The train pulled in and there are scores of people trying to get on. I am opposite a door as it pulls in (One of only 3 doors as we have crappy trains here) There is a lady on crutches who wants to get off the train and she says she has booked assistance and a ramp. She waits for everyone to get off but then blocks the door and says she is not moving until the ramp arrives. A guy says that is fine but asks if we can walk round her to get on ourselves as the train is filling up and there are probably 25 to 30 people waiting to get through that door at least but she refuses again and blocks the door until the ramp arrives a minute or so later. The guy is visibly cross but doesn't say anything else.

So who was wrong? Should the lady have let people on? There were just as many people getting off as getting on. Or was she in the right for refusing to move? The doors could not have closed as she was leaning out of them and the conductor always checks the train before signalling it can move off. Or was she in the right to worry about being missed in the crowd?

[TheHatOfDoom]

@SheSparkles, in their defence they might have been. On Saturday there was a guy with ramp ready and waiting for me. But you can’t book on that train and he’d been sent a message that I was at the opposite end of the long train to where I was and had to run

[UrsulaPandress]

I'm in awe of her. Well done that woman.

I use a stick and have a death stare that I use when getting off the tram or the tube.

[NotWeavingButDarning]

She was right. I would hope that the waiting passengers were annoyed at the right people (i.e. the train company for not having their act together re the ramp).

Good for her for standing her ground.

[SheSparkles]

@TheHatOfDoom, fair point, the ramp person wasn’t to know where on the train she’d be (I’m grumpy as feck just now as I have a streaming cold so may be a tad unreasonable )

[Bramble71]

Please stop and think about how worrying it is to travel when you are disabled, slow to walk etc.

People seem to lose their minds when trying to get on and off trains, buses, trams etc. When you're disabled it's very easy to be jostled or knocked out of the way, trampled on and, yes, even pushed. I know; they have all happened to me.

Also, there is the anxiety that the person who you've had to specially arrange in advance to operate the ramp or help with your luggage or bring you a wheelchair (no, you can't always just travel at will like an able bodied person) might not be able to see you in the crowd and will just give up and leave. Then, after all that, what if the doors close and the train pulls away with you still on it.

I think she was absolutely right to wait. Usual train etiquette is to let everyone alight first before boarding. All those waiting could easily (if not disabled) have gone to another carriage to get on if they were that concerned.

[MissVanjie]

This is why this country is fucked and getting fuckeder

When people are faced with a shitty unfit for purpose service which they also pay through the nose for, like trains in this country, instead of demanding real change from people with the power to make that actually happen (enough carriages for the demand on the service, assistance for disabled people to access the service properly) they turn on each other instead like rats in a cage

We’re all doomed

[SadieHH]

She was right. I feared for my life most of the time when I was commuting through Clapham junction and I was completely able bodied. The train wasn't going anywhere at that point and so there was no desperate hurry for people to get on.

[MarthaArthur]

She was right. People should not get on a train until.people have gotten off. Thats logic. Its not her fault the train people were delayed in getting her the ramp.

[Bramble71]

She was right though at the same time she probably shouldn't have been traveling in that condition

I can't quite believe anyone would say that, busybarbara! Why on earth should disabled people be stopped from having what little independence they can muster! I'm gobsmacked. That might've been the first time she was out of her house in weeks, or she could be forced to travel as she's desperately struggling to hang on to a job.

birdsgottafly has it dead right - Life is piss easy when you are able bodied and you should have a level of gratitude about that, tbh

[ShoesAndFood]

She was right.

[SubtitlesOn]

She was in the right IMHO

[Lunde]

busybarbara: She was right though at the same time she probably shouldn't have been traveling in that condition

So you think that disabled people shouldn't be allowed to travel to their work, family or medical appointments!

What a ludicrous think to write! You do realise it's 2018?